Accidentally in Love
by AnitaChristensen
Summary: WARNING: Jimitri/SLASH. General information; TP Universe, but no TP aliens. Only humans. Dimitri is my OC and both Jim and Dimitri are OUT OF CHARACTER! (: Enjoy and thank you for your interest :-D If fanmade pictures for this fic, (made by me) has any interest, go to anitachristensen92 dot wordpress dot com
1. Summary

23-year old James Hawkins thinks of the Pleione Captain Assembly as just another meeting he has to attend to as Cartographer. What he doesn´t give a second thought is that this meeting in particular is anything but. Dimitri Yazova, Seventh Captain in the Pleione Circle is a man with absolutely no tact, no tone and no inhibitions. He becomes smitten with Jim at first sight and doesn´t make much of an effort to hide it. A twist of fate brings them together for five weeks on Dimitri´s merchant ship and as Jim spends these weeks in the company of Dimitri and his crazy crew, he starts to realize that the life he´s chosen is not for him. And he starts to realize the undeniable desire between Dimitri and himself cannot be ignored. As their relationship deepens, Jim slowly finds out there´s more to Dimitri than meets the eye. An utterly dark past and secrets are to be revealed..

WARNING: Jimitri (Jim x Dimitri) slash fan fiction crossover.


	2. Prologue

Many a legend has been narrated about the downfall of the pirate kind. Many of them aren´t exactly flattering. Which is a shame, in my opinion, as we were once known as a people worth flattering. I´ve heard many of these narrated legends and I must admit, they never seem to seize to surprise me. Mostly due to the level of negligence to tell both parts of the story, so, I thought I´d narrate one myself. I´ll try and tell you the story I know as the true one. The one I´ve witnessed for myself;

Pirates were once a famous people. Not so long ago we were actually known for our outstanding skills in fencing combat, horsemanship and marksmanship. Respected for our discipline and trusted for our honesty. Back then our income basically rested on the backs of our beloved and indispensable horse breed, the Paso, through breeding and transportation. But it also rested on our capability of thinking out of the box and developing ideas for, for instance, spacecrafts. Many a spacer´s life has been saved by the ideas of a pirate. The common citizen has forgotten by now. The highest ranking power then was the High Council. I guess you could call them the ultimate judges of right and wrong, much like the Intergalactic Council is today. Don´t have much regard for the interests of the common citizen, but they sure tell them so. Anyways, the High Council were the ones to determine which social classes should prevail as time passed, which branches of education should be the most acknowledged and well-paid, how the economy of the nearby galaxies should decrease and increase in balance with income and expense, so on, so forth. Whenever the High Council was in dire need of professional help, they developed a tendency to depend on us pirates. They´d often employ us to teach our skill to the citizens of their cities, be it horsemanship, marksmanship, martial arts, fencing or even growing foreign crops. We should´ve known better than to help them unconditionally. The pirates used to depend on nature´s hand to grant us what we needed, but we quickly picked up the scent of how easy it would be to join the universal economy and start trading with pounds and pence instead of the old fashioned trading of giving and sharing. This must´ve been our gravest mistake. As time passed, the pirates were no longer masters in growing crops. After just one year, the skill we´d been developing over centuries was long gone as we´d already gotten way too used to having money to buy food for. You can only imagine how utterly screwed to hell we were when we, in our hopeless naivety forgot that stuck up people who are used to getting what they want when they want it should never be trusted. What happened next was bound to happen; we taught our skill to too many of the citizens and soon, our help was no longer needed. The High Council stopped paying us for our services and they started to take the credit for the ideas that we´d developed. You can guess for yourself how long it took before they started treating us like lowly scum. Like we were some sort of loyal servants they could just whistle at and we´d be there, wagging our tails between our legs as they told us to fetch. Lap dogs, more like. Sorry for the sour eructation. The once mighty Pirate Society had fallen apart because of the High Council. We slipped into poverty and unfortunately into bitterness as well. As we could no longer feed our young, nor use our remarkable skill as a source of income anymore, we got desperate. We started to turn to theft and plunder to get by and our proud reputation finally dissolved into thin air with that. We´d become a shabby shadow of what we used to be, wandering about the streets like fatigued dogs in search of food.

But then one day, a man named Yahzovlia wouldn´t let the High Council get away with taking advantage of his kind any longer. He was the son of our former leaders that´d grown unnecessary to have when we decided to become the High Council´s little house pets. He ignited sparks of hope in our hearts as he promised us he´d be the one to return our kind to our former glory. He promised us that everything could go back to the way it was long before the High Council took advantage of us. After all, it was only years ago since we´d changed our economy. The way we lived before had been developed and taught to the younger generations through a period of hundreds of years. And of course, desperate and hopeless, we all agreed to follow him without question. Another grave mistake, as firstly, Yahzovlia wanted us to take our revenge on the High Council. Unfortunately, revenge is always a deed that´ll bring you pride and justice. For a little while. After that, it´ll be sure to haunt you and with time, it´ll hunt you down to claim a prize you cannot pay. Yahzovlia started a kind of revolution, took to the ancient meaning of the term ´pirate´ to make us feel self-righteous and follow him - a rebellious soul who goes against injustice and society as a whole. He organized plunder parties to rob decent citizens of food and clothes to help us get started for our new life. We did it because we felt like the High Council owed that to us, as the least. The only thing we hadn´t been taking into our considerations was that it wasn´t the citizens that´d served us injustice. It was the Council. Yet, the citizens paid the prize for what our very own stupidity and greed had done to us. We couldn´t see that back then, blinded by the illusion Yahzovlia had created in our minds; that we carried out these actions for the sake of the future of our kind. We all believed him. We never should´ve done that. After our selfish deeds were done, our reputation had been utterly ruined beyond recall and we were no longer to be trusted by the common citizen. After a plunder went terribly wrong and citizens lost their lives, the pirates were exiled and accused of high treason. Many of us died in that period, hanged or shot. The rest of us fled for our lives, sought hiding anywhere we could, be it in a forest or a cold moist basement. My mother and I hid in the burned down ruins of a small village outside a larger town. We were forced to learn how to use nature as our provider of food again. Luckily, my mother was a wise and cunning woman. She soon found out just how to take care of herself and she taught me everything she knew. Her teachings have served me well during my years. One day, Yahzovlia showed up. He found us despite our efforts to keep us hidden and he convinced us that he´d take care of us. He´d already found and established a camp, far away from the High Council and anyone that´d harm us. He´d gathered a couple hundred pirates under his roof in a matter of days, stepped in as our leader once again. I didn´t know what to think about that. But I remember that my mother was blinded by him and she took me with her, following Yahzovlia once again. I wanted to try and cross this man that´d indirectly killed so many of us. I didn´t understand why my mother would follow a man like him. But then again, I was only eight years old back then, nobody would listen to a little scamp like me. So I kept silent.

Yahzovlia stepped in once again as our leader, led my mother and I to safety, took grand care of all of us. He promised us once again that we could easily get by on our own. And we could. It wasn´t long before our little camp had grown into a pirate village, hidden and safely tucked away from the rest of the world. It was placed in a deep alley, I recall, and Yahzovlia made sure we had guards posted all over the valley´s opening, to make sure nobody found us. I sometimes heard guns fired in the night when I went to sleep. My mother reassured me and told me not to put too much thought into it. But I was old enough to understand there were sacrifices to keeping our hideout a secret.

This was how the first clan was founded. Yahzovlia called his clan the Shadowblades. To this day, it still exists. As the rumor spread of this newly established clan and the greatness of its leader, pirates in hiding came from everywhere to join him and he welcomed them all. He taught the young generations all he knew, as he was the most skilled fencer and rider we´d ever seen. I´m not much for admitting it, but he was the one to teach me everything I know about weapons, horseback riding and even fishing. Everybody said he was the epitome of a pirate. Strong, dependable, brave and caring.. Just the leader we´d always wanted. And he put that legacy of his into his firstborn, Ereek Yahzovlia. Ereek was, much like his father, the epitome of a pirate and through his raising, Yahzovlia made sure that a great leader aspired in him. And he became a great leader, indeed. Just not the kind of leader I wanted to follow. So much like I´m narrating this story, as a little act of rebellion, I started a clan for myself when I was about 26 years old. I left the Shadowblades for personal reasons and I took about half of Ereek´s beloved clan with me. Ereek didn´t take well to me after that, but then again, he´d never taken well to me. Much like I´d never taken well to him..

There were other reasons to why I left. Yahzovlia changed. And so did Ereek. We lived in peace for years, but just like that, they both turned to become like the devil himself. Yahzovlia´s mind and heart had been poisoned by the injustices he´d suffered at the hands of the High Council. He´d fought it for too long on his own. His soul had turned utterly black with hatred and thirst for revenge despite the happiness and safety he´d created for his kind by rebuilding our Society. So he made a pact with, what for others are gods, our Highest Lords. He swore to them the Unbreakable Blood Oath; an oath no pirate swears upon unless they´ve lost their sanity completely. What´s worse is that Ereek followed suit. They swore they´d avenge all the pirates that´d been shot and hanged during the exile. And that they´d take revenge on the High Council some day. Old news, isn´t it? Both of them became obsessed with the idea of making everybody respect the pirate kind again. And they did so by making everybody see the pirate kind as a living nightmare. A kind of omen for death, like crows. This was how the stereotype that still lives of pirates emerged. The Shadowblades started to space instead of riding horseback. That way, pirates became the spacers with crimson sails and razor-sharp scimitars. The men with black souls and no conscience. Many a story has been told of the Shadowblades and they are seen as nothing but plunderers, rapists.. And murderers. Who can blame the common citizen for fearing our kind over anything else with that kind of stories to tell? As the few generations between then and now have passed, the stories which were once told of the pirates has been forgotten and replaced by those of murderous intent and blood spill. Pirates are now the boogie men mothers tell their children of when they won´t behave. This is what we have become. All of us. Whether we are the followers of the Shadowblades or not, the generalization in the commoner´s mind is still intact; no matter whether you´ve done anything to deserve it or not, if you´re a pirate, you´re a monster. Who is to blame for this is up to the individual to decide. To me, however, the answer to this is clear; time has a vile habit of erasing the ability to determine who were wrong and who were right. The victor has always been the one and will probably always be the one to tell the tale of the war. The losing part doesn´t get a say. They´re both enemies and in each of their respectable minds, the other part is the culprit. But, in reality, there is no tangible culprit. Both sides made mistakes that led to the other during the war. And it all escalated from there. But one thing is for sure; Yahzovlia and his son were supposed to be the ones to save our kind. Instead it turns out they´ve been the ones to condemn us.

Since our exile, pirates have been the most wanted kind in every galaxy of the Etherium. That is why we, whom have decided to betray our leaders, have to live in hiding for the time being. We´re hunted from both sides, by our own and who we once thought were our own. We cannot reveal what kind we truly belong to. If we were to reveal it, the Intergalactic Council would have us all hanged for treason. This rule still applies. And what changes can we make when we´re dead? The Intergalactic Council is not important in this context, though. It is the trust of the common citizen that´s important to my clan and many of the other clans, too. Over time, hundreds of clans have been established throughout the galaxies. But none of them are as great and as numerous in followers as my own clan is today. Only the Shadowblades and Ereek himself can match the Crystalblades.

To this day, the Shadowblades still roam freely as they wish. When Yahzovlia died and Ereek took over his duties as the new leader of the Shadowblades, he had a son himself. He raised him in the same manner as he was himself. Rumor claims this man is as red-haired as he´s spilled blood and his eyes are filled with the glowing insanity of the Highest Lords that he too has sworn upon the most sacred Oath like his ancestors. He was to take over the Shadowblades. But he chose his own path. Legend claims that flames decided upon his fate. He turned his back on his future throne and put everything he´d ever known behind him.. To join the Crystalblades instead. At first, he was a broken man. Not even 18 years old, still haunted by the things he´d seen and done. But we soon saw the loving, caring man in him that we´d always wished for our leader to be. We chased away the black shadows that´d darkened his heart and brought out the greatness he had in him. He´s everything Yahzovlia should´ve been in his time and so much more. Today, Ereek´s firstborn is the leader of the Crystalblades. We trust that he´ll be the one to succeed where his ancestors have failed. He shall be the one to lead us out of the darkness his own kin has cast upon us. He shall be the one to unite all pirates under one scimitar. And he shall be the one to raise it towards the sky, as the true leader of us all. His reign will come in time.

The sun was shining vividly inside a little room through a wide, rectangular window. It was divided evenly into two parts and the right part of it was open to the limits of its latch to let in the chilly morning breeze. A man was leaned forward over a beautiful desk made from the finest dark red cherry, scribbling down a text set up with the formal requirements of a letter. The man looked older than he really was right at that moment, as he´d worked the entire night. Tired shadows darkened his otherwise ever cheerful hazel eyes and the thin faint wrinkles that decorated the corners of his eyes and his forehead made him look 5 years older than his 54 years. Some steel grey spots had snuck into his naturally thick light brown hair and it´d been a couple of months since he´d last dyed it. He´d decided the next time was going to be the last. He couldn´t outrun his age any longer. John Leland sighed heavily as he read through the contents of the letter again. His head was filled with gloomy thoughts and he looked up from the letter to gaze out on the red-purple colors of the Etherium. He had to smile to himself at the sight. He´d always found calm and peace in looking at the Etherium.

_It´s so beautiful this morning. Maybe I should-_  
- Daddy!, a whimpering voice sounded from the bathroom behind him and interrupted his wishful thinking. John dropped his forehead to his palm as the moment vanished into thin air._  
__Yeah, moment´s gone. Here we go again, I swear, that lad is going to be the death of me. _

- What is it now, you whimpering wuss?! I´m working!, John threw over his shoulder, launched his pen to his desk and stood up from his chair to pace for the door where the Tarussian voice came from;

- Just how am I supposed to be living under these conditions?!

- How about starting with not wasting all my precious hot water? What is it?, John asked his adoptive son Dimitri, in an impatient voice. The steam from his son´s abruptly paused shower whirled around in the room and made John´s eyes follow it with his eyebrows furrowed.

_So much for trying and reduce the water bill. Useless lad.. _

The useless lad stood beside the shower with only a towel draped around his hips, soaked from head to toe, looking very accusingly at his father while he motioned towards the shower.

- You used the last of my soap! Are you even aware of how expensive that was?!

John just looked at him with hopelessness shining in his eyes and without uttering a word, he pointed to the antique cherry glass cabinet behind Dimitri. Dimitri turned around to open the glass doors and his face lighted up in a big grin when his eyes found the unused last lavender soap.

- Aha! There you are, you cheeky soap! Whoever gave you permission to hide in here? Problem solved, Daddy, do continue your work! You can´t spend your entire day just standing there gawking at me, right?

John simply gawked at him for a little longer, just for the effect, before he shook his head in disbelief and turned his back.

- I swear, having sons sometimes.., he trailed off to himself as he stepped out of the bathroom. Dimitri tilted firstly his head, then his upper body to look after him out the door frame. He knew his adoptive father well enough to tell when he was stressed out. He put the soap back into the cabinet, dried himself off and went after John out of the bathroom. John had placed himself behind his desk again, his face buried in the palm of his hand. Dimitri moved silently to stand beside him and smirked playfully before he leaned his entire weight against his father to hang over him.

- Why do you have such a long face, Daddy?, Dimitri asked him as he arched his neck forwards to look John in the eye upside down.

- What in the world are you doing?

- It doesn´t suit you.., Dimitri mocked his tone of voice and pouted his lips to look like a gold fish gasping for air. John couldn´t help but let a faint smile lighten up his features and pushed at Dimitri´s face with his hand.

- Get away from me, you whelp! You´re all wet!

- I think you´ll survive that, Dimitri laughed happily as he pushed at his father with his hip. A little time went by while John tried his best to keep his eyes on the letter and not let himself get distracted by his son´s persuasive attempts at making him stop working. He sighed deeply as Dimitri kept at it.

- Dimitri.. I´m trying to concentrate, John tried to keep his face straight and his voice determined, but Dimitri´s playful behavior was contagious. It wasn´t long before John found himself launched out of his chair to chase Dimitri around the desk. His son squealed in surprise and took off with him right at his heels.

- I´ll get you, you little-, John laughed as he stretched his arms out to reach him.

- No! Daddy, that´s not fair! I´m a cripple, you hear?! Argh, no, let go!, Dimitri exclaimed when John took a firm grip by his upper arm and tilted him to lie on his stomach on the desk. John pushed him down with his entire weight and started tickling at his rib cage. Dimitri twisted as he laughed uncontrollably, trying to break free.

- So, you awful lad, are you done playing cheeky on me, huh?! Are you? Are you?

- Stop it! Daddy! You´re killing me!, Dimitri laughed happily and John couldn´t help but laugh as well. The gloomy thoughts he´d had just a little while ago had vanished into thin air as if they´d never even existed. He finally let Dimitri off the hook and strutted back to his chair to sit down. Dimitri lay panting for his breath as he tried to stop laughing.

- You might just as well stop trying, lad, you´re never going to get the best of me, John smirked in a gloating tone of voice and Dimitri sent him a challenging smile.

- Yeah, right! You just wait, I´m getting there!, he replied confidently as he supported himself on his elbows. His keen eyes caught on to the letter in front of John and he tilted his head to try and read it upside down. John hurriedly removed it from the desk and put it down in the drawer underneath it. Dimitri looked up at him with an accusing hint to his eyes.

- I was reading that..

- Yeah, I noticed. Keep your nosy nose out of my letters, John replied with a smile, but the warning was clear to his tone. Dimitri furrowed his eyebrows and shrugged.

- Whatever. By the way, ´nosy nose´ doesn´t even sound good, you freak of pronunciation, he countered cheekily and rolled over to lie on his back like a playful puppy. John raised an eyebrow at him.

- Oh yeah? That´s how we dance today? Let´s dance then, you nitpicker!, he bit back at Dimitri. And so it went on;

- Kill joy!

- Ginger!

- Hey! That was uncalled for, I ain´t no ginger, I´m a redhead, if you´d please, you old man!, Dimitri laughed. John opened his mouth to say something, but fell silent just as he was about to scold his son. He only managed to raise a warning finger at Dimitri.

- Just remember you started it.., Dimitri shrugged a little too boldly and John smiled brightly.

- What the- I didn´t start anything, you cheeky lad, will you behave yourself?!

John reached out for him to tickle him again, but this time, Dimitri was too fast and he pranced out of his father´s reach to stick out his tongue in a mocking gesture.

- Too slow. You can´t catch me, Dimitri smirked playfully and John smirked right back.

- You´d better watch your tongue before I prove you wrong.

- That´s what I want you to do, Dimitri pushed his luck as he motioned a shrug with his arms and John narrowed his eyes at him. He hurriedly grabbed a pillow from the couch just beside him and threw it to Dimitri´s face. He was caught completely by surprise and had to squeal again when John launched himself to collide with him. They both fell to roll around on the floor, pushing and wrestling one another in a little game of tag they´d made their own.

- Hey! Are you having a wrestle fight without me? That´s so not cool!, a deep voice full of accusation sounded from the door beside the bathroom. Both John and Dimitri looked up to see John´s other adoptive son, Tomás, stand in the door frame. He didn´t look very happy.

- You can have a round-up too, if that´ll make your day, John grinned at his grumpy expression.

- Heh, yeah, I´d like to see you try. It´s only that cripple of yours that you can get the best of, old guy, Tomás simply replied as he strode gracefully through the room. Both Dimitri and John exchanged glances as Tomás managed to insult them both in the very same sentence.

- He- Hey!, they exclaimed at the same time and laughed at the synchronization. Tomás smirked contentedly down at a report he´d spent the last three days writing.

- Who´s gotten the wrong leg out of bed today, bro?, Dimitri asked mischievously as he studied Tomás flipping the pages. He sent Dimitri a spiteful glance.

- My report has, ´bro´. Are you even aware that this report has to be absolutely perfect?

- Oh yeah, of course. Silly me..

- Damn straight.

- Nerd.

- The- The hell?! You dare say that again to my face, you cripple?!

- Sure, if this bastard would remove his fat corpus! Get off of me, you´re heavy!, Dimitri laughed as he pushed at his father.

- I think I´ve made some terrible mistakes with you two. Where have I gone wrong in your raising? And here I am, thinking I´d done such a great job.., John spoke with torment in his voice as he removed himself from Dimitri. Dimitri immediately jumped to his feet as he eyed his shot. He pranced across the room towards his brother with his chin held high and a gloating smirk on his face.

- You have, just look at me! An outstanding example of a prize winning stallion, ain´t I? It´s only Tomás who´s questionable in this litter, Dimitri said as he flexed his well-trained stomach muscle and put a hand on his chest for the stuck up effect. His brother and father both dropped their jaws to the floor and burst with laughter. Dimitri's proud stance fell along with his shoulders as he sulked at them both with narrowed eyes.

- Well, I think so.. In fact, I think I'm just adorable! You're just jealous of my stunning looks!, Dimitri said to his brother´s face as he pointed an accusing finger at him.

- Oh yeah?, Tomás almost choked on his laughter.

- Yeah. Not that I can blame you. I am stunningly attractive. Everybody would want to bathe in my glorious presence, so I´ll mercifully let you, just this once.., Dimitri smirked provocatively at his brother and it worked like a spell;

- Alright, that´s just it, you gloater!, Tomás laughed as he jumped his brother to take a firm hold around his neck.

- No! Get away from me, I refuse to let such ugliness taint this epitome of natural beauty! Ow! Hey! That´s not fair! Get off of me!, Dimitri laughed as he wrestled his brother. John got up from his squatting position and watched them as their wrestling escalated to the floor. He giggled as he started to go back to his desk.

_They should keep one another occupied for a little while. Tsk. Kids in an adult´s disguise. _

He sat down behind the desk again and took out the letter he´d been trying to hide for Dimitri. That day was going to be stressful enough on him as it was, with meetings and all. He didn´t need this on his hands as well. He peered over at his still wrestling sons and had to smile when Dimitri hit his head and whimpered pathetically about it. He shook his head and returned to the sheet of paper he´d spent three hours decoding;

Hideout no. 38,

Att.: Dimitri Yazova

Fresh information collected from Ivan STOP Recent activity on the Shadowblades STOP New target locked STOP Theft and ignition of the tobacco store STOP Andromeda Spaceport STOP Saving detected in the store STOP Meet up with Ivan for more information STOP This Friday, 23 P.M STOP Montressor Spaceport STOP

The section with the name of the sender was always left out, to avoid any problems. He studied the letter he´d been decoding while his smile faded. He´d only managed to get two lines down. In a matter of more than six hours. He was looking forward to the day he wouldn´t have to do it that way anymore. John sighed and ran a hand through his hair as the gloomy thoughts of his returned.

- When is it going to end? Blast this all to hell..


	3. Chapter 1 The Tarussian

The tall brunette standing leaned against a marble pillar yawned widely, not bothering to cover up his mouth. His drowsy alert eyes scanned the landscape in front of him; it was a wide pasture, filled with spring green grass and blue skies aloft. The midday sun hammered down at the scene and bathed it in a silky light. James Pleiades Hawkins, or Jim as was his nickname, 23 years old and educated Cartographer had been ordered by the Council to welcome the last Captain when he decided to arrive at the Pleione Captain Assembly. He´d already run himself late by 20 minutes and Jim wondered, for most probably the seventh hundredth time and definitely not the last, why he´d even bother to show up with such a delay. Jim actually had no idea why he´d bothered showing up in the first place himself.

_Oh, right, because I don´t have a choice. _

He yawned again and scratched at the back of his head, relieving his left leg by lifting it up and placing the sole against the pillar he was leaned to.

- Seriously, man, just for how long are we expected to be waiting for this fellow? This is getting pretty damn old and I´m pretty damn sure I´m about to suffer sunstroke!, a complaining voice sounded next to him.

- Patience, Eric. Tarussians are slow, Jim said in a low mischievous tone and sent the Academy Aspirant at his side a faint smile to match. The Aspirant named Eric whom Jim had been ordered to bring with him for today´s meeting for the practice giggled humored at Jim´s stereotypical joke. He couldn´t help but take it to the next level;

- Yeah, I´ll bet, as they got their legs cut by their knees. Obviously, they should be getting some kind of merit for being late, no one can blame them for taking small steps.

- Eric, behave yourself!, Jim choked with laughter as he could easily imagine this Tarussian Captain in the back of his head; low and stunningly unintimidating. Tarussians were a race with kind of a low average height in comparison to, for instance Jim´s race, the Onglash. The Tarussian Captain was the most recently added member of the in total 7 Pleione Captains. Normally, a Circle of Captains would only consist of approximately 6, as that was the exact number needed to even income and expense to the merchant ships involved. But rumors swirling told Jim that this Tarussian in particular had been hired due to him having influence beyond his rank of a mere merchant ship Captain. Rumors claimed he´d previously worked in close contact with a department of influence in the Intergalactic Spacer Council and Jim couldn´t deny that he, despite the delay, was excited to meet him. The Pleione´s had always been the exception from the rule in many aspects and Jim had taken particular interest in them. Especially as he had a keen eye on one of the Captains involved. And not just any Captain, but the stunningly beautiful Cynthia Campbell, first Captain in the Pleione and only female. Jim had to swallow hard at the thought of her. She had shoulder long light brown hair, a pair of unusual violet eyes and a natural authority that was not to be mistaken in the way she held herself. She was a large and tall build for a woman and from what he´d heard, she should have a proper fist as well. Jim had been utterly smitten with her since the very first time he´d laid eyes on her, but of course, she was way out of his league. He was merely a Cartographer and she was the most acknowledged merchant Captain in these parts of the Nolormia Galaxy. No one was able to deliver faster than she. Well, except for the Tarussian he and Eric were waiting for, Dimitri Yazova. Cynthia Campbell didn´t take well to him because of that, or so Jim had heard. He´d been hoping to get hired as the Cartographer for the Pleione's ever since he´d graduated from the Interstellar Academy five years ago, but that was too much to hope for, as Eric was to be their Cartographer after he graduated. The position was most probably a paid one, as Eric wasn´t, put very mildly, a talented Aspirant. But he was privileged for sure. With rich parents. Jim wasn´t the jealous type, though. He was very well aware of his own humble position and he acted according to it.

- But it´s true! They really should consider wearing high heels or something, I´ll bet it´d look nice on the- Ouch!, Eric suddenly squealed in surprise and disengaged like lightning from the place he´d just stood. Jim flinched involuntarily as the sudden movement startled him out of his train of thought. He hurriedly set his eyes in the general direction of the cause; a low solidly built horse whinnied at Jim just a couple of meters from him and a red cat was dimly to be spotted on top of its back. Unused to horses as he was, Jim backed up a couple of paces to seek a little distance from the large animal. He froze involuntarily when his disengage was brought to an abrupt halt by something firm behind him and a deep humored giggle launched sweet shivers down his spine. The next thing he knew were strong hands supporting his weight by his upper arms when he lost his balance and something feeling like large stomach muscle supported his shoulders.

- It does have its drawbacks, indeed, but they often do come quite in handy from time to time, short legs that is. Especially for sneaky bastards like myself. When it comes to high heels, really, I think I´d tilt. My balance ain´t all that good.

The voice was deep like the giggle and there was a pleasant Tarussian accent to the pronunciation, evident to hear from the R´s that rolled right off of his tongue. Jim couldn´t help but unconsciously take a liking to the deep voice and he looked up at the Tarussian man who could be no one else but Dimitri Yazova. He had unusual red-golden hair that absorbed the rays of the sun to make its locks look like shimmering flames. Jim was met with a charming playful smirk hovering around full lips, a thin scar running across a crafty chin to follow a solid jaw line. The nose was broad and crooked as if it´d been broken several times and the crafty cheekbones and tall forehead complimented his large deep-set eyes. When Jim looked into them, he had to gasp involuntarily for his breath; they were amber golden, mostly resembling a raging solar fire riding the winds of the Etherium. There was a cheerful glimpse to them, mixed with a hint of mischief right at that moment. They were the most mesmerizing pair of eyes Jim could ever recall having seen in his life.

- I´m terribly sorry for this, the blasted animal has its own life, the Tarussian giggled apologetically as he helped Jim to stand. Eric hurriedly picked up his facades and smiled as if nothing had happened. He corrected at his shirt and raised an eyebrow at the Tarussian.

- It´s not a problem, I´m used to horses.

He was obviously lying to save the situation, evident to spot from the way he sent the animal discreet nervous glances. Much to Jim´s annoyance, the Tarussian simply raised his eyebrow faintly at Eric and giggled again, a reaction that seemed to be his favorite occupation and reply to people´s comments.

- Are you, now? Good for you, he smiled and Jim noticed how Eric was thrown off by his bluntness, something that very rarely happened to the young man. He couldn´t help but like it.

- Yeah, well.., Eric stammered and fumbled at his fingers. The Tarussian let him off the hook and passed Jim closely as he went up to his horse. Jim caught the pleasant scent of a powerful cologne and he had to flare his nostrils involuntarily to breathe it in; it smelled like lavender and it mixed with the sweet smell of horse and a clean scent of newly washed clothes.

- Acero, you´re so bad! You simply couldn´t help yourself, now, could you?, the Tarussian scolded the animal affectionately as he made an inviting move towards himself and the horse lowered its head to walk to him. Jim noticed for the first time how beautiful the horse was; it was steel grey, with small specks of white and shades of grey to its thick fur. It almost shone in the midday sun, as if the Tarussian had just spent hours grooming it. Even the raven black tail and mane was nicely combed. The horse had special markings, as all four legs were as raven black as the tail and mane, all the way down from its knees to its hooves. Even the hooves were a dark shade of grey. The head and ears were black as well, with slight hints of chocolate brown to it. Jim had never seen that coloring on a horse before. But then again, he hadn´t seen many horses in his life at all. They´d been slowly replaced by machines and technology as time had passed. It wasn´t exactly uncommon to have a horse, but to use it for transportation purposes these days was uncommon. Jim watched the Tarussian as he took his horse by its forehead lock and pulled tenderly at it while he whispered something foreign to it. Jim would´ve guessed it was Tarussian.

- Excuse me for interrupting your ´horsemanship´, Jim coughed sharply to get the Tarussian´s attention. He got it, as he looked up at Jim with his penetrating amber golden eyes. Jim cleared his throat as he suddenly felt a little uncomfortable with those eyes directed straight at him. He had no clue why.

- I presume you´re Dimitri Yazova, Captain on ´The Rising Legacy´?, Jim asked the Tarussian formally. Again, Dimitri Yazova found it appropriate to simply giggle.

- Your presumptions are correct, James Hawkins. Nice to meet ya, Dimitri then smirked in a very disturbing manner as he studied Jim more thoroughly through eyes to match. There was an interested glimpse to his eyes as he let them devour Jim all over and Jim found himself thrown off for a moment, not only by this man´s peculiar behavior, but also by wonder; how did this Dimitri Yazova know of his name? He´d never met the Tarussian before. Or, he didn´t think he had, at least.

- Smooth. Have you ever heard of the concept of arriving to your appointments on time, Mr. Yazova?, Jim hurriedly reestablished himself. Dimitri lifted a confused eyebrow at Jim as he placed a finger underneath his upper lip. Jim noticed the index finger on his right hand was missing, as he was using his middle finger.

- Can´t say as I have. Is it a commonly used concept? Must be because I´m a little slow.. You know how we Tarussians are, he smirked and winked at Jim. Jim felt his cheeks start to flush as this Dimitri reminded him of his earlier joke.

- You heard that, did you? But that doesn´t change the fact that you´re late by, excuse my language, frigid 23 minutes and we´ve been waiting for you for 15 in this hammering midday su- Excuse me? Are you even listening?!

Dimitri had started to whisper faintly to the horse beside him and it whinnied sharply with gritted teeth as if it grinned at something he´d told it. When Jim spoke, he immediately stopped whispering and put up the widest, most annoying smile Jim had ever seen in his life. It was probably the most innocent smile he was able to muster. Jim clenched his teeth in frustration and breathed out slowly. This Dimitri Yazova type didn´t live up to his expectations at all. Well, except for the unimpressive height of 1, 75 cm.

- Look, Mr. Yazova. We´re late by almost half an hour, thanks to you, and we have a tight schedule to follow today, so-

- Don´t you ever smile, Jim?, Dimitri interrupted him rudely, still with that annoying smirk glued to his face. Plus, he´d called him Jim. Out of the blue. Jim raised an eyebrow at him, unsure of what to do with his behavior, so he simply said;

- Excuse me?

- I figure you´d be stunningly handsome if you did.

Jim dropped his jaw slightly at Dimitri´s utter bluntness and sent Eric a second glance; he´d dropped his jaw as well, following their conversation with all too interested eyes.

_Great, now he´s going to gossip about this.. _

Jim threw himself off by giving Eric his attention and was just about to say something, but stopped himself as he realized it wasn´t going to be a very intelligent reply. He replaced it with an even dumber reply as he repeated himself subconsciously;

- E- Excuse me?

Dimitri giggled humored at his flustered behavior and Jim felt his stomach knot up with rage.

_How dare you, you.. You.. _

- You have this cute habit of saying ´excuse me´ even though you heard me just fine. I must admit I find that slightly attractive about you, Dimitri winked a little too confidently as he sent Jim a crushingly charming smirk. At least according to himself. Jim felt a nerve at his eye twitch as he tried desperately to control his temper, but when he saw that ridiculous smirk again, he simply lost it.

_Alright, this is it. Done and done being the nice guy! _

- Oh yeah? Well, buckle up, Dimitri Yazova, here you have it! I find the fact that you´re incapable of meeting up to your appointments on time, the fact that you´re an arrogant rude ass and the fact that you nickname people you don´t even know very unattractive about you! It´s James Hawkins to you, damn it, now get your butt inside the damn Assembly Room, we´re now late by 27 minutes! Again, thanks to you! Get moving!

- Ugh, you´re so aggressive, James Hawkins.., Dimitri cooed charmingly with an extra roll on his R´s. Jim made a backwards movement with his neck as he raised an unbelieving eyebrow at him.

_Is your tact completely non-existing or what?_

Dimitri stood for a moment with his finger underneath his upper lip, something he also seemed to be doing a whole lot, and just studied Jim.

- I like it!, he agreed with himself with yet another one of those charming smirks, but this time, Jim had enough. He was fed up with Dimitri´s behavior and he refused to stand out there and be bullied by him for his own amusement one moment longer. He decided to put an end to it by smirking right back.

- Do you, now?, Jim lingered confidently as he mocked Dimitri´s way of talking. He tailed slowly towards the Tarussian and smiled as charmingly as he could. That seemed to shut Dimitri up, alright, as he lowered his chin slightly to look mesmerized at Jim.

_Oh yeah, I´m gonna get you good, ´Dimitri´, you just wait for it. I´ll show you I can play this little game of tag you seem to fancy, too. _

Jim moved up close to Dimitri and took him gently by the collar of his shirt to pull him forward. His facial expression was priceless, as the glimpse of mischief had been replaced by that of surprise.

- So.. Dimitri Yazova? How about you do me a little favor?, Jim cooed in the same manner Dimitri had done just moments before. That seemed to wake him from his trance, as he smirked again and let his amber golden eyes examine Jim´s lips thoroughly. Jim decided to get a little out of line and wetted his lips provocatively with his tongue.

- What kind of favor?, Dimitri asked softly as his smirk faded, his eyes glued to Jim´s lips. Jim only smiled and leaned slightly forward until he almost touched Dimitri´s lips and he could feel his warm breath against his own. Dimitri had closed his eyes and for just one moment, Jim was actually tempted to kiss the stranger. But he hurriedly pulled himself away and patted Dimitri on his chin. The amber golden eyes opened in surprise and Jim smirked confidently as he spoke in a low tone;

- If you´d be so kind to take the first presentation for the Council, as a little reward for your behavior. Or, let me put it differently; you´re up for the first presentation. Just so you know.., Jim cooed seductively before he spun right around on his heel and marched away from Dimitri. He dropped his jaw to the marble floor and his eyes were a hilarious mixture of surprise and disbelief. He simply gawked at Jim as he flaunted his neck, making sure his steps were long and his back straight.

_Nailed ya, Mr. Dimitri Yazova. _

- The first presentation.. Goodness me, ain´t I the privileged one. I believe you´ve taken a liking to me already, Jim?, Dimitri hurriedly reestablished himself. Jim stopped his pacing and turned slightly to look at him with an overbearing smile hovering around his lips.

- Please.. Don´t flatter yourself. You´re way out of my league.

Dimitri blinked a couple of times at Jim´s daring comment and couldn´t help but let a smile light up his features. Before he had the chance to get back at him for that one, Jim hurriedly added;

- Besides, if I were into that kind of thing, you´d surely be my last pick. Eric, get a move on!

- R- Right!, Eric immediately heeded, offering Dimitri a quick second-glance over his shoulder while he darted after Jim. Dimitri watched the tall brunette as he continued down the hall. He just had to get the last word;

- Your last pick? Why is that? You´re saving the best for last?, Dimitri yelled after him and Jim smirked to himself.

_This is a good one.. Brace yourself. _

- Nah. I was just thinking I´d prefer my men tall!, Jim threw back over his shoulder as he paced right on. Dimitri was left to gawk after Jim with his jaw dropped in an overall very unintelligently looking expression.

- ´I´d prefer my men tall´? Huh. Not bad. Not bad at all. Ugh, that.. Ass, hot damn!, Dimitri smirked to himself as he sent Jim´s behind admiring glances. He couldn´t help but wet his own lips as he let his eyes follow Jim´s smoothly moving hips.

- Oh, right, I almost forgot! I wanted to thank you for confirming my earlier suspicions!, Jim added as he turned to face Dimitri.

- Excuse me?, Dimitri dug his own grave as he´d been too busy studying a certain something to listen to what Jim had said. Jim eyed his chance to get back at Dimitri immediately;

- Awwh, that´s adorable. You have this cute habit of saying ´excuse me´ even though you heard me just fine. That´s the first attractive thing I´ve learned about you so far, Dimitri Yazova. What I meant by my earlier comment is that now I truly do know with certainty that Tarussians are slow, as you seem to keep forgetting that my name is James Hawkins and not Jim. Thank you so much. Now, if you´ll excuse us, we really don´t have the time to play with you any longer. We have our work to attend to, unlike certain others. Good day to you, ´Dimitri´, Jim mocked his accent before he once again turned his back and walked down the hallway towards the Assembly Room.

Dimitri was, once again in a very short amount of time, simply left to gawk after Jim, not sure what had just happened. Their whole conversation had only lasted for about 5 minutes, but those 5 minutes had been the most interesting he´d had for quite a while. As the realization struck him, he grinned ironically and shook his head.

- James Hawkins, you´re running me ragged! I surprisingly love it. I´m going to go to hell for the thoughts that ass of yours is making me produce.. And it would seem I´m not as straight as I thought myself to be. But what the hell, never mind all that, hot damn! Acero, Elena, espérame aquí!, he ordered his horse and his cat to stay before he paced down the hall after Jim and the Aspirant named Eric. The day he´d dreaded for the last couple of weeks suddenly seemed that much more interesting with the young Cartographer around.


	4. Chapter 2 The Presentation

Dimitri Yazova was a man of principles. One of them was running himself late to every formal meeting he was to attend to. This one was no exception. He´d dreaded the meeting with the Council for as long as it´d been planned. As usual. In his opinion, those meetings were nothing but a waste of time, nothing but a flock of sheep trying to muffle out the sounds of one another discussing a matter that could be easily decided by a 5-year old. He hadn´t even bothered much for his presentation; he´d had the idea for quite some time and he´d put it to use in practice, too. He figured that day would be the best time to present it to the Council. So he´d made sure he was delayed by approximately 20 minutes, just to mess around with the sheep so that they´d get all tangled up in one another as their planning went to hell. Then, he´d show up pretending not to notice. He was already looking forward to the glances he´d most probably receive from his beloved friend, Cynthia Campbell. He could just imagine how she´d scold him for being irresponsible and childish. He smirked to himself at the thought.

- Aaah, I´m so bad.. Elena, keep up, would you?, he called over his shoulder to his little red cat prancing around after scents in the grass a 200 meters behind him. She didn´t care much for keeping up with the fast-paced trot of Dimitri´s horse. However, she did prick her ears in his direction when he called her and obeyed. Dimitri leaned slightly backwards on top of Acero to signal for him to stop. He always rode bareback without reins, so Acero could easily feel the shift of his riders weight on his spine and he reduced the trot to a smooth halt to wait up for Elena. Dimitri patted Acero gently on his behind to signal for Elena to jump up and she did to curl up at Dimitri´s loin. A heavy sigh of discontent escaped her a short while afterwards as she expressed her opinion on Dimitri and his orders that resulted in her limited freedom.

- Yeah, that´s what you get for being such a sniffer. There´s a limit to how far I can push my luck with the big boys in there and anything above 20 minutes is pushing it, baby, Dimitri told her as he squeezed his thighs in to Acero´s sides to ask him to trot again. Elena didn´t seem to take too well to Dimitri´s poor excuse. He sent her a quick glance over his shoulder before he continued;

- You should cut me some slack, your Highness.. We´ll be home again soon enough and you can roam freely to your heart´s content. Don´t worry, the sheep in there can´t handle me for very long. I´m too black for them, he grinned at his awesome one liners. The cat didn´t seem to think them all that awesome. It simply yawned and closed its eyes.

- You´re such a party pooper today, Elena.. You hear? Tsk. Lazy skunk.., he mumbled to her as he shifted his behind backwards to push at her. She growled faintly at him and Dimitri laughed.

- If I didn´t know any better, I´d say I´m not too popular right now, huh, Acero?

Acero whinnied sharply at the mention of his name and flaunted his neck as he trotted over the top of the final hill. A large marble building was to be seen just 300 meters from them and Dimitri sighed deeply at the sight of it. He ran a hand through his thick, red hair and breathed out with torment;

- Aaah, here we go again.. I´m telling you guys, this is the last time I´ll.. I´ll.. M-My goodness.., he trailed off as he dropped his jaw in utter amazement. That´s when he´d firstly seen the stunningly attractive young man, James Hawkins. He´d just stood there, carelessly leaned against a marble pillar with his long legs crossed at the ankles. His body was muscular and broad and Dimitri couldn´t help but smirk naughtily at the sight. His clothing was the formal creamy white Cartographer uniform consisting of a t-shirt and tight pants to suit. He had dark brown hair set in a short haircut, except for the unusual long forehead locks that covered his temples and reached his high cheekbones. His facial features were masculine; he had a very solid jaw line to contrast his not so crafty chin, his cheekbones were high and his nose big and straight. As he came closer, Dimitri´s keen eyes had noticed a thin, white scar that split his left eyebrow in two and continued down his cheek. And when he´d gotten to hold the man in his arms, he´d seen his eyes. The moment Dimitri firstly looked into those eyes, he could´ve sworn his heart stopped before it frantically restarted and made him pant for his breath. They were a hypnotizing sky blue, lighter than anyone Dimitri had ever seen. This James Hawkins, whom he´d tried so hard to impress, seemed immune to his charms. He´d insulted his height, he´d scolded him for his behavior and he´d tricked him into humiliating himself in public. All of them things Dimitri would´ve never let anyone get away with under normal circumstances. But James Hawkins was no normal circumstance. He´d proven himself capable of running Dimitri ragged to the ground so hard and fast he barely had the time to think. And the Tarussian was smitten with him, evident to see from the way he stepped over the door frame into the Assembly Room, his eyes searching the young man only. He found him and the Aspirant named Eric standing on the right side of the Council´s board, the formal Cartographer´s placing. He was greeting the entire Pleione Circle as each of them went up to greet the Council. Dimitri hurriedly placed himself as the seventh and last in line. When it was his turn to greet the Council, he stepped confidently forward despite his totally misplaced appearance; while all the other Captains in the Circle were wearing their respectable colored uniforms, Dimitri had left his dark red uniform with gold threading at his ship. It was much too stiff for him to feel comfortable in it and he´d always hated formal dressing. Instead, he was wearing his plain dirt-stained white shirt with rolled up sleeves and a pair of tight riding pants. The entire Council wrinkled their noses at him as he bowed deeply to them with an ironic smirk hovering around his lips where they couldn´t see it. But as always, their tact forbad them to comment on his inappropriate choice of clothing and as always, this was much to Dimitri´s entertainment. He then went on to greet the Cartographers with an expectant smile on his face. He couldn´t wait to hear Jim´s next comment, but suddenly, none but Cynthia Campbell whom was the first Captain in the Pleione Circle stepped in front of him when he was but 5 meters from Eric.

- Yazova.., she almost spat out with disgust.

- My, Cynthia, aren´t you looking as stunning as fresh drops of morning dew on a spring flower?, Dimitri smiled cheerfully while he sent Jim sideways glances.

- Enough of your babbling, Yazova, you´re late again! You´re a disgrace to this Circle! I demand you see to it that you don´t offend this Council any further. You´re pushing your luck..!, Cynthia hissed through gritted teeth while she pointed a warning finger at him. Dimitri simply raised a pair of superior eyes to her and smiled provocatively.

- Why, I´m mighty happy to see you too, Cynthia, mine..

- Why, you.., she hissed once again before Dimitri interrupted her rudely;

- If you´ll excuse me, I have some formal greetings to attend to, we´ll talk later, shall we?

Dimitri stepped around the taller woman, going out of his way to impress Jim, but suddenly, he found himself nearly dangling at the collar of his own shirt as she´d grabbed him by it. She then pulled him close to her face with lightning in her eyes.

_Aah, so troublesome.. Do we have to go through this again? Really? _

- Fair warning, Yazova. You talk to me with disrespect one more time and I swear, you´re in for a launch to the floor, head first, do you understand me?!

Dimitri sent Jim a quick glance as he decided to go all out.

- No, I´m sorry, I didn´t quite catch that one..?, Dimitri pushed Cynthia over the edge. She narrowed her eyes at him in blind rage and raised her massive fist to knock him to the floor. Dimitri hurriedly took her by her thumb and squeezed it backwards to make her let go of his collar. Just before her fist came in close contact with his chin, he´d evaded her knock smoothly to squat down in front of her. He studied Jim hurriedly out the corner of his eye to make sure he was looking. He was and that made Dimitri overly confident as he spun around with his leg stretched out in a low circular kick. He managed to sweep Cynthia right off of her feet and she hit the floor with a heavy thud and a furious exclaim. But Dimitri couldn´t afford to care. He stood up slowly and held his chin extra high for the effect while he studied Cynthia through superior eyes.

- Cynthia!, Jim immediately exclaimed as he ran for her to sink to his knees beside her. He sent Dimitri an angry, accusing glance before his eyes turned into that of concern. Dimitri rolled his eyes in hopelessness.

_Aah, blast it.. He has a soft spot for __**her**__? Good job, Dimitri, he´s sure to take a liking to you now. You gloating idiot.. _

- Are you hurt?, Jim asked Cynthia with deep concern in his voice, but she only pushed him away when he tried to support her to stand. Dimitri narrowed his eyes at her in resentment for that.

- I´m just fine, Hawkins.. Don´t fuss.

- What´s all this then, Captain Campbell, Captain Yazova? A fight amongst Captains on Council grounds? I´m not exactly thrilled, I must say.., a deep, authorized voice cut through the room like a whip. Both Jim and Cynthia froze in place, but Dimitri only rolled his eyes disrespectfully.

_Aand, here we go again.. _

- Mr. President! My sincerest apologies, it won´t happen again!, Cynthia answered to the man immediately as she lifted herself to her full height, which was about stunning 1, 85 cm. She pushed at Jim to make him straighten his back in respect. The man who´d spoken was the highest ranking man in the Assembly Room, President of all Captain Circles in these parts of the galaxy. He was a tall man, but his height didn´t exactly add to any intimidating atmosphere around him, as he was a fragile build. His hair was unusually blonde, almost platinum golden and his eyes steel grey with a hint of wisdom to them you´d be wise to heed. He was dressed in a formal uniform consisting of a shirt, a jacket and a pair of pants. The fabric of the uniform was grey with royal purple hints to it and his black boots were newly polished and tall to complement his long legs. He nodded to Cynthia to signal it wasn´t especially her he wasn´t thrilled about. He turned to face the real source of his irritation.

- Mr. Yazova?, he spoke coldly with an almost untraceable tiredness to his voice, as if Dimitri was the trouble child of the litter.

- Mr. President, Dimitri replied right back with a hint of sarcasm to his tone. The taller man narrowed his eyes at him.

- Late once again, are we?

- Yeah, I had some business to attend to, Dimitri shrugged with a fake smile.

- Oh? More important than this meeting, I presume?

- Your presumption is correct, Mr. President.

- I see.. You´re awfully.. What do you say, frisky today? You pick a fight with another Captain of your own Circle on Council grounds? That´s daring, even for you.

- I´m doing my best.

The air around them slowly became smothering as they faced one another down with only challenge in their eyes. At first glance, the President seemed to be winning as he stood taller than Dimitri, but when taking a closer look, Dimitri was burning with a resolve in his entire body language that radiated calm and determination. He stood with his legs slightly separated and his shoulders relaxed, but not dropped. He held his chin high as was befitted a leader and despite his unimpressive height, he was clearly a man worth respecting. There was no sign of submission in his amber golden eyes, which burned vividly like a solar fire.

- What do you have to say for yourself and your inappropriate behavior, Mr. Yazova?

- She started it, was Dimitri´s childish response as he looked away. The taller man sighed heavily.

- Mr. Yazova, now, really.. Would you behave like the adult you´re supposed to be and let´s get this meeting over with?

- That´s why I´m here.

- Good. If all Captains would please take their seats?, the President spoke loudly for everyone to hear and the remaining 6 Captains moved along to take their places in front of the Council´s board. As Cynthia passed Dimitri, she sent him a glance that could not be mistaken;

_This isn´t over yet_, her eyes seemed to promise him.

_Oh, I wouldn´t want it for the world_, Dimitri´s eyes communicated right back at her as he smirked playfully and tailed to his chair. He went right past the snack table and snatched a vine of grapes before he proceeded to sit down. He leaned back comfortably and crossed the ankle of his right leg over his knee as the only one. The other Captains sat stiffly and formally. He shifted a little and started to munch the grapes. The President eyed him with some discontent before he reminded him;

- Mr. Yazova.. That´s for after the Council has come to a conclusion, if you´d please..

He said it with his teeth clenched and there was an evident tone of forced patience to it. Dimitri simply looked up at him and shrugged.

- Oh, I´m not intending on staying that long, so I´ll just help myself. I´m starving.

The Council members started to mumble to one another and Dimitri smiled as he enjoyed the extra attention he´d managed to pull out of them that day.

_Meeting Jim with that divine ass.. Launching Cynthia to the floor.. Getting the big boys all worked up.. I must say, this day hasn´t turned out all that bad and it´s not even 11 yet.. I´m amazing.. _

Dimitri placed one of the grapes between his lips as he studied Jim provocatively. He was standing just 5 meters away from Dimitri´s chair and when he felt watched, he glanced over at Dimitri through the corner of his eye. Dimitri smirked and sucked the grape inside his mouth before he licked his lips. Jim rolled his eyes and paced directly for him. He snatched the grape vine right out of Dimitri´s hand, put it back on the snack table and marched to his original position with his arms bent formally behind his back. Dimitri shrugged and reached behind him gracefully to take the grape vine again.

Put it back, you ass!, Jim mimed discreetly with his lips, but Dimitri just put another grape in his mouth and munched it demonstratively.

Don´t tell me what to do, he mimed with a smirk on his face. Jim directed his gaze forward to the Council with a hopeless expression as he sighed deeply. Dimitri couldn´t help but giggle humored.

- Ladies and gentlemen.. Now that we´re all finally assembled.., the President opened the meeting with a heavy emphasize on the last line as he sent the seventh chairman hinting gazes. Dimitri put another grape in between his lips and held up a hand in the air, as if to state he was the one the President was talking about. The President narrowed his eyes at him before he continued;

- We´ve assembled here today to decide whether or not to disengage or stay in the negotiations with the Intergalactic Space Council.

_Oh, my goodness.. Would you hurry it up already, I don´t have all day to sit here and listen to your drawn-out bull..! _

- Mr. Hawkins, if you´d please step forward?, the President requested his Cartographer formally. Dimitri smirked as he shifted in his chair again and looked to Jim expectantly.

_Now, this.. Is something I can relate to.. Ugh, that ass.. _

- Yes, Sir, Jim replied formally and strode to the middle of the Circle formed by the arched Council´s board and the arched bow of the seven sitting Captains. Dimitri had to follow the graceful movement of his long, muscular legs and when Jim straightened his back, Dimitri took immediate notice of the majestic way he held himself. He had a natural authority to him that couldn´t be mistaken and Dimitri couldn´t help but find it utterly attractive.

- As we all know, the ISC has been putting up new negotiations. Whether to disengage or stay in these negotiations is up for the individual Circle to decide, as the pros and cons are different from Circle to Circle. In this particular Circle, the pros are few and the cons are many. The ISC has demanded an economy programme regarding all spacer´s salaries. The percentage they have decided upon for the Pleione is a decrease of approximately 20 %, due to the distance between-, he stopped himself in the middle of his sentence as Dimitri giggled faintly into his hand.

- Are you enjoying yourself, Mr. Yazova..?, Jim asked him coldly. Dimitri looked at him with feigned hurt in his eyes.

- Awwh.. And here I thought we´d established a first name basis, ´Mr. Hawkins´.., Dimitri mocked him with a smile and a slight tilt of his head. Jim raised an annoyed eyebrow at him.

- Well, obviously, you thought wrong. And if you cannot take this meeting seriously, I´d strongly suggest you left this room. Immediately.

- Oh, I would, believe me. But eh.. A certain somebody pinned me to the wall by bossing me around to take the first presentation. He´s very persuasive, so that´s what I´m going to do. Then I´ll vanish into thin air, Dimitri said with an arm gesture towards the spot Jim stood.

- Why don´t you go right ahead, then? We´ll all be rid of you, Jim replied as he backed up a couple of paces to signal for Dimitri to take his place.

- It shall be my immense pleasure, Mr. Hawkins.., Dimitri cooed sarcastically as he stood up slowly from his chair. He passed Jim closely with his chin held high, not bothering to offer him a second glance. But as he passed him, Dimitri just couldn´t help himself; he had to follow the maddening urge that had been driving him crazy since he´d met the young Cartographer. He snuck his hand behind Jim as he passed him and pinched him hard. The brunette flinched involuntarily at the intimate touch and sent Dimitri spiteful glances that would´ve been able to kill him right off.

_Good thing I´m about to present, or I´d be missing my head right now.. _

Dimitri hurriedly started his presentation, just to be on the safe side.

* * *

When Dimitri took the word, he´d suddenly changed in a heartbeat. Drastically. He was no longer the unserious, disrespectful joker he´d been just seconds ago. But then again, the President had seen that side of him before. He´d been especially defiant that day and the President couldn´t help but wonder why. As the young Tarussian started his presentation, he was tailing slowly down the line of Council members, staring each and every one of them in the eye, one by one. Despite his unimpressive height and unattractive clothing, he held himself as if he was employed President. He tailed around the Presentation Circle with his hands folded behind his back, taking long steps with his back straight. The way he stared everybody down that dared look him in the eye, which was not many, made him look like a police officer in command of the entire gathering. When Dimitri came to the President, he stopped in front of him and sent him an ironic smile. His amber golden eyes which the President knew all too well sparkled with superiority. Almost as if he dared the President to step up and face him. He then turned his back disrespectfully to the President, not bothering with the formal bow that was the custom before a presentation before the Council.

- Gentlemen.. My ladies. If I may speak freely..? I can´t say I´m impressed with the level of intelligence in this room.., Dimitri stated rudely as he tailed on. A surge of whispers went through the Assembly Room and they filled the air with a buzzing noise. The President furrowed his eyebrows slightly at the young Tarussian´s audacity, not that he was surprised; that kind of statements was very much like Dimitri. Unfortunately, no matter how many times the President had desperately wished he could, he couldn´t just fire him. That would be a huge mistake. And unfortunately, Dimitri knew that. So the President clenched his teeth and put up with his behavior, like he always did. He watched Dimitri closely as he continued;

- As James Hawkins mentioned, we are all very aware that the big boys has had the audacity to demand all spacer salaries in this Circle decreased by 20 %. That goes for our employees, too, Dimitri referred to the other Captain´s. They all nodded, all too aware.

- And, as we also know, this is an insane amount to spare for many of us, put in plain language. Instance.. James Hawkins?, Dimitri asked Jim formally as he turned around to face him. Jim looked up at him with an expectant eyebrow raised.

- What is your annual income?, Dimitri asked him.

- Well, eh.. Taken taxes, around £9,400 a year, Jim replied, unsure as to why Dimitri would need that information. He wasn´t going to be affected by the negotiations, as he wasn´t a sailor. But Dimitri just nodded with a thoughtful expression.

- Pretty much the same income as a cook´s. Cut that by 20 %, that´d be about 7,500.. £7,520, to be precise. That´s a fine example of forcing decent citizens into poverty. Are you seriously telling me you´re going to put up with that?, Dimitri asked the Captains expectantly while gesturing with his arms. No answer.

- I´d like to present to you an alternative income. A, let´s put it in a language you understand; an income to even the deficit we´re going to experience by disengaging from the negotiations, which I personally would strongly suggest the Council did. In other words, let´s take a little distance from the big boys and show them we´re not to be messed around with. We´re able to do just fine without them trying to sink their claws into our limited income.

When Dimitri didn´t continue, one of the Council members grew impatient;

- So.. What exactly is your proposal, then?

- Passenger transportation, Dimitri simply stated. The Council members and the Captains looked to one another with skeptical gazes. The President noted to himself that only the young Cartographer, James Hawkins, stared directly at Dimitri with surprise in his eyes.

- Passengers transportation? With merchant ships?, another Council member repeated with disbelief to his tone. Dimitri sent him an expectant gaze.

- That´s what I said.

- That´s not possible, Mr. Yazova, the Council member stated firmly.

- Oh? Why is that?

- Well, because.. Because it´s simply unheard of! Which merchant ship would have any additional space for passengers besides the crew? Not to mention the security issues on board. Lay people would have to educate themselves on security on a merchant ship before being able to sail. Just think of the dangers of the engine rooms.

- One thing at a time. Firstly, as befalls the additional space, it´s not a problem that´d pose a direct threat to this idea. In fact, the average merchant ship has unoccupied space and building additional cabins for the passengers to spend the time of the voyage in is not expensive. Besides-

- Building additional cabins? There is only one large cabin on merchant ships besides the Captain´s State Room, the Council member interrupted him. Dimitri´s eye twitched slightly at the interruption as he sent the Council member a burning glance.

- Mr. Fiod.. Please.. Don´t interrupt me while I´m presenting.. I hate interruptions.

Jim sent Dimitri a sideways glance with narrowed eyes, as if to say; ´In that case, you shouldn´t interrupt others, either!´. Dimitri smirked at him before he continued;

- Now, as I was saying, building an additional cabin to a merchant ship, take, Legacy´s size, is not expensive at all. My proof behind this statement can be found on my own ship. This regards your earlier comment, Mr. Fiod; I´ve build a separate cabin for each and every one of my crew members and given the right amount of time and patience to find the materials to a reasonable prize, it could be done for less than £110 each. Although, it does take that amount of engagement, time and of course, the will to post financials into it. A will I´ve experienced the Council to lack.., Dimitri obviously hinted as he sent the President sideways glances.

- Mr. President, if I may?, the third Captain in the line stood up in request to speak.

- Go on, Mr. Onrid, the President allowed him. Dimitri crossed his arms across his chest.

- Sir. Mr. Yazova, your proposal sounds like it could be done, given the time and resources, as you say. But you forget to bring one very significant aspect into your considerations; if we were to disengage from the negotiations and introduce passenger transportation as you propose, there would always be the risk of unemployment. If we cross the ISC in this manner, they could simply choose to dismiss the Pleione Circle´s employees and replace us with new and more, should we call it, cooperative employees. If that was to happen, what would you suggest we did in such a situation?, Mr. Onrid asked Dimitri with an expectant eyebrow raised at him. Another evident surge of whispers went through the room as the Council and the Captains discussed this new angle of the problem. Dimitri simply smiled and answered in a careless tone;

- Seems obvious to me. Was I in the given situation, I´d suggest myself to move my fat ass and get a new occupation. Simple as that. No matter what we do, the risk of unemployment is always present. The big boys only employ whom they want for as long as they want. When they grow tired of you, you´ll know. I ask you now, Mr. Onrid, are you a blasted dog?

- Excuse me?

- Why do you always seem to do what the ISC demands? Why should we always fall in line to them and let ourselves be pushed to the side, wagging our tail and saying thank you while they do? I know that I, for one, refuse to sit when they ask me to. I sincerely believe that you are the same, Dimitri stated with encouragement in his voice. He sounded like a leader trying to build up a rebellious mood in his followers. Silence rested in the room for a smothering minute as the Council digested Dimitri´s daring words. He´d just touched upon a very tender subject; the pride of the Captains. Dimitri shifted his weight and corrected at his shirt, waiting patiently for their reply. But when no one seemed to wish to comment, he continued;

- Regarding the security education, this could be simply communicated to the eventual passengers through guidelines on posters hung up in their potential cabins, much like emergency posters in case of a fire breaking out. Or, you could as Captain bother to explain to the eventual passengers what dangers are present and make sure every single necessary piece of security equipment is to be found on board your vessel.

- Just one more question, Mr. Yazova. What makes you think anyone will actually make use of this concept, if it was to be introduced by the Council? Do you have any statements or any other kind of proof that people would want to travel with merchant ships?

- Well, I know it´s normally not a problem, as these space travels take weeks at best, months at worse, but even longer with ordinary passenger vessels. Citizens in need of quick transportation would be a fine target group. And, taken that I´ve put this idea into practice for friends in need of quick transportation many a time, I´d say that´s the proof I´m capable of giving you.

- Transport your frie- What license did you have to go ahead and do that, Mr. Yazova?, another Council member suddenly spoke up. Dimitri raised an eyebrow at him.

- Well, taken that such a license doesn´t exist, what do you think..?

- So, you transported citizens from the Nolormia to the Nebula Galaxy without a license to do so?!, the member raised his voice to Dimitri.

- Common sense! Miraculous! Such a clever boy you are.. Now, I´d-

- What were you thinking?! Merchant ships are dangerous, are you even aware that you put lives on the line for the sake of your-

- Silence!, Dimitri´s authorized, controlled voice cut through the man´s high-pitched one like a whip to flesh. The Council member shut up involuntarily and his cheeks reddened in embarrassment as he found himself too intimidated to continue.

- I hate interruptions..! But what I hate even more is having to repeat myself!, Dimitri snarled and his Tarussian accent was heavily evident in his pronunciation.

- I am a merchant ship Captain, unlike you, Mr. Fiod. If anyone knows about the dangers of merchant ships.., Dimitri continued slowly as he sent the President sideways glances once again. The President looked down to a sheet of paper in front of him and took some notes to avoid Dimitri´s gaze.

- It´d be me. I had instructed my friends on these risks and as they´re not mentally disabled, they understood common sense. This is my presentation. However wasted it may be. I consider my work here done. Gentlemen. My ladies. Thank you all for wasting my time. Now, if you´ll excuse me, I´ve got better things to do than babysit the lot of you. Good day, Dimitri finished as he strode out from the Circle with his chin held high. All eyes followed him to the door with their jaws dropped.

* * *

Jim couldn´t believe it. He just wouldn´t believe it. The Tarussian, Dimitri Yazova, had just done what nobody else dared. He´d managed to run the Council over with his presentation. However rude, unusual and utterly inappropriate it´d been, Jim had to admit the man had a point. And when he´d mentioned passenger transportation, Jim had to look to Dimitri through new eyes. He´d had the very same idea for months, but he knew that his humble position as Cartographer was too low to present such ideas. He looked to the President. He had a mask of concentration on his face as he looked after Dimitri´s back. He suddenly stood up.

- Just one moment, Mr. Yazova.., the President stopped Dimitri. He froze to the floor and turned around slightly with his eyes widened in surprise.

- If you were to prove that this daring idea of yours could be done.. Would you be willing and able to take a passenger with you on your next trip to the Nebula?, the President asked him. Dimitri turned around to face him, seemingly a little flustered.

- Yes, I would. However, I´d need someone who´s only going as far out as the Andromeda. That´s where I dock and return to the Nolormia through Montressor. I launch in a week´s time from today.

- Very good. Gentlemen. Any volunteers?

Strangely enough, nobody said a word.

_Oh man.. From Montressor? To the Andromeda? Crap.. Somebody, volunteer! _

Eric´s features suddenly lighted up in a big smile of clarity and before Jim could stop him, he´d turned to him and spoken eagerly;

- Jim, didn´t you say you were going to the Andromeda in a week´s time?

Jim hurriedly let his gaze flicker to Dimitri. He sighed inwardly as an expectant smirk slowly started to hover around the Tarussian´s lips. Jim let his gaze wander around the room; all eyes were now resting on him. He wetted his lips nervously and smiled apologetically.

_Just keep a straight face.. Straight face.. Lie! _

- I, eh.. Eh, no, it was firstly in two weeks time, Jim tried his best, but Eric shook his head with determination in his eyes.

- No, I´m sure you said it was in a week and one day!

_Oh, shut up, would you?! Why did I tell you that, anyway? _

- Is that so, Mr. Hawkins?, the President asked him expectantly.

- Well.., Jim mumbled while he went rough on Eric in his mind.

- It´d be most convenient. You could travel with the Rising Legacy to the Andromeda and back. And you would be to report on the voyage and your experiences with being a passenger.

Jim could evidently hear from the tone in the President´s voice that it was no request; it was a direct order. And as Cartographer, he was in no position to decline a direct order from a man with the President´s authority.

_So much for ´volunteering´.. Why me..? Why me..? Why me, OF ALL PEOPLE, WHY ME?! _

Jim knew he was trapped and he knew the words he was about to utter would be the worst he´d ever spoken in his entire life;

- Yes, Sir.


	5. Chapter 3 The Benbow

- Mom!

Jim barged in the kitchen door to the old Benbow Inn. He´d only just returned from the Council´s Headquarters and after hours of travel to reach Montressor, his stomach was still boiling with rage. He really didn´t have neither the time, nor the patience, nor the mental energy to put up with that idiot to Dimitri Yazova for five entire weeks. Plus his entire crew. Anybody who could stand that arrogant individual for more than a couple of hours straight would have to be just as stuck-up and annoying as himself. It didn´t make it any better that Jim had involuntarily spent the travel time between the Headquarters and Montressor trying to figure out how to get out of this unexpected turn of events instead of catching up on his work like he´d planned to. But so far, he had absolutely no clue. His life suddenly seemed that much more smothering than it´d already been and he almost couldn´t take it anymore. He only wanted to scream in frustration. He´d just found out that his work schedule would be very tight that month, so he´d have to work double on his stay at the Rising Legacy to keep up. Meaning, he wouldn´t have much time on his Surfer, either. Plus, much to his annoyance, he just couldn´t stop thinking about the way Cynthia had rejected his help so coldly and just pushed him away at the Assembly. Lastly, he´d found out that his economic resources would be very, very limited that month, even more than usual; he was forced to buy some new electronic circuits for the inn, he´d have to get his uniform stitched up to fit his shoulders properly and he needed to buy some new materials for map measuring. Not to mention his wonderful new expense; the travel money for Dimitri Yazova.

_MY LIFE IS JUST __GREAT RIGHT NOW! JUST GREAT! __Alright, deep breath, Jim.. Breathe in.. And out again. That´s it. I might just as well stop dreaming about that new sail for my surfer. It´s not going to happen, I can never afford it. It´s been three months in a row already. Strange how time just flies by. I´m turning 24 soon.. That´s odd. I just turned 23, or so it seems. _

Jim was awoken from his train of thoughts by his mother´s relieved voice;

- Jim! You´re finally home!

- Mom! You won´t believe what I´ve been through today, I think- What´s wrong?, he asked his mother who'd been sitting down in one of the chairs at the pine table in the middle of the kitchen. She was looking exhausted, like she always did those days. Jim almost couldn´t bear to see the dark shadows under her eyes and the frown on her forehead that made her look 10 years older than she really was. He hated the fact that she´d become a restless ever since he´d gotten that job as Cartographer, but he´d have to work if they wanted to keep the inn. It didn´t make much of a profit anymore, as regular upgrades and maintenance due to old age constantly dragged down the occasional surplus they managed every now and then. To be entirely honest, Jim didn´t understand why his mother still held on to the old Benbow, but he´d guess it was to remember his father. Not that he deserved to be remembered in Jim´s eyes.

- The stove burned down again! Can´t you take a look at it, see if you can fix it? This is a disaster!, Sarah sighed deeply and tilted her forehead to rest in the palm of her hand.

- Oh, I´m sure it´s not that bad, Mom, calm down. I´ll take a look at it, okay?, Jim smiled reassuringly as he squatted down in front of her and took her hands in his own. She smiled gratefully at his efforts on calming her down.

- I sure do hope so. I needed three omelets half an hour ago. The guests are starting to leave.

- Ugh, better get to it, then! But first, Jim smiled and wrapped his arms around his mother.

- Ah, Jim.., Sarah laughed happily and hugged him back. Jim separated them after a little while and caressed her shoulders.

- You looked like you could use a hug. And I think I needed it, too.. Well, I´ll take a look at it!, Jim smiled and pranced off to the stove.

- Have you had a nice day so far?

Jim sent her a glance over his shoulder as he squatted beside the stove and took a firm hold in it to separate it a couple of inches from the wall. He panted slightly at the strain, but not much.

_Ehe.. Yeah, about that.. _  
- Sure, it´s been fine. Although I think I´ve just met the most annoying, arrogant, idiotic human being there is.., he added to himself under his breath. Unfortunately, he´d forgotten his mother´s ears worked like magic.

- Now, that sounds interesting! Go on!, Sarah encouraged him enthusiastically and the little smile hovering around her lips was a tad too knowing for Jim to find it comfortable. He raised an eyebrow at her before he continued;

- Well.. Alright, the Assembly was supposed to go smoothly, right up until the President noticed we were one Captain short. Not that he seemed to be surprised by it. Anyways, this Tarussian Captain, he, he arrived like, half an hour too late and he wasn´t even apologizing for letting Eric and I stand in this hammering sun for 15 minutes to wait for him! And that´s not all; he spent 5 of that half an hour harassing me! It was like he meant to drive me up a fucking wall! He was just so.. So.. Annoying and.. Rude and.. Arrogant and.. Argh?!, Jim got carried away in his bad temper beyond the point of realizing that his mother´s smile had turned most disturbing and interested while she listened. When he finally did notice, he trailed off and studied her with furrowed eyebrows.

- Mom, why are you looking at me like that? You´re starting to freak me out..

- Oh, am I looking at you in any particular way? I didn´t realize. Go on, now, it´s getting interesting!, she motioned towards him with a slight twist of her wrist for him to continue and he did, reluctantly;

- He even tackled Cynthia for no reason at all, she simply asked him to start arriving to Council Assemblies on time. Which should be obvious to him, I mean, isn´t he supposed to be an adult? Then, he tackled her to the floor. Just like that. He even had the audacity to eat from the snack table before the presentations had even started, he acted like a spoiled child in front of the President and he also managed to present his proposal utterly inappropriately and tactlessly!

_Even though he did have a point and the idea is genius.. _

- You know what, he even pinched my butt! And what´s worse, he seemed to have nothing holding him back. No tact. No tone. No nothing! It was almost like he was from a different universe entirely, the way he acted and-

- Was he handsome?, Sarah suddenly interrupted him with a curious smirk, out of the blue, in a tone suggesting she hadn't listened to a word he´d just said. Jim simply looked at her without replying; he was thrown completely off by the unexpected question. But he quickly reestablished himself and answered in a skulking tone of voice;

- How would I know? I didn´t bother to check him out, I´m not much into men..

- It sure seems like he was into you, she stated matter-of-factly in an all too casual tone with an all too casual smile. Jim found himself incapable of answering. In fact, he found himself incapable of doing much besides just staring at his mother while her comment sank in.

_Was that annoying bastard flirting with me? For real? No way.. _

Jim recalled the way Dimitri had reacted when he´d tailed towards him and pretended to intend to kiss him. He had to giggle faintly to himself as the realization struck him and after a little while, he simply burst with an uncontrollable laughter. He even had to hold his stomach while he supported himself against the stove.

- Jim! Why is that so funny?, Sarah exclaimed in surprise at his outburst and furrowed her eyebrows at her son. Jim panted for his breath with teary eyes as the laughter cramps slowly subsided from him. Then, the realization struck him again, full power this time around.

- Oh, my god! He wasn´t just harassing me, he was sexually harassing me! I refuse to do this shit, I can´t be supposed to spend five entire weeks with some gay guy who´s into me?! This day can officially get no worse. In fact, this fucking month can officially get no worse now!, Jim changed from laughing his ass off to almost ripping out his hair.

- Hold on a minute, now, Jim! What´s this about spending five weeks with this man?

- That´s what his presentation was all about! Passenger transportation with merchant ships! The President just decided that to check out the idea, a volunteer would have to travel with this Dimitri Yazova and his merchant ship from here to the Andromeda and back. And since I was retarded enough to tell that whelp to Eric about my trip to the Andromeda in a week's time, guess who got the honor of ´volunteering´? Me!, Jim exclaimed in frustration while he motioned towards himself. Sarah didn´t seem to pay much attention to Jim´s torment, she was looking blankly at the stove with a thoughtful coat over her sky blue eyes. She suddenly directed her gaze to Jim;

- Did you just say Dimitri Yazova?

_Yeah, I wish I hadn´t.. _

- Yeah, that´d be my guess. That´s what I intended to say, anyway, Jim shrugged.

- You´re going on a trip to the Andromeda with Dimitri for five weeks? But, that´s great, Jim!

- Yeah, that´s what I´ve been trying to- Wait, what? Great?! Have you- My god! Have you paid any attention at all to what I´ve been saying these past 5 minutes?!, Jim exclaimed in disbelief and gestured wildly with his arms. Sarah just looked at him.

- Why, every word.

- Good, then review it in your head, because I think you just missed out on the big picture; it´s not great! It´s awful! I can´t stand the guy! Not to mention being around him for five weeks! It´s going to end in tears and blood, I´m telling you!, Jim exclaimed and paced back to the stove. Sarah just sat in the chair and looked after him with her face lighted up in a mischievous smile.

- Oh, I´m sure it´s going to be just fine, the way you talk about him.., she said in a hinting voice, but Jim didn´t pay attention to what she was saying. He was fumbling with a wire behind the stove while he ranted on in a low voice to himself;

- I swear, if he pinches my butt again, I just swear, that ugly head of his is going to roll! I´ll strangulate him.. Yes! That´s actually no bad idea! That´s what I´ll do!, he smiled contentedly to himself. Sarah giggled faintly and raised her gaze to the ceiling while she shook her head.

- Oh, the unspoken attraction.. Dimitri wouldn´t be the shabbiest son in law, now that I think about it..

- A-ATTRACTION?! SON IN LAW?!, Jim obviously heard her that time around as he nearly jumped up into the ceiling, but instead, he just sat right down on his behind from his squatting position. Sarah couldn´t hold back her laughter as she watched her son get his temper up and running as he stood up.

- Attraction?! You- To that stupid.. Arrogant.. Arrogant ass?! You- You´ve lost it! You must be out of your mind! Oooh, no, I´m getting off right this instant, you lost me. I ain´t, uh uh, oh no, not me, no way!, Jim raged as he paced directly towards the door he´d entered just minutes ago.

- But, Jim! Where are you going? Out surfing again?, Sarah giggled after him, but Jim just sent her a spiteful glance over his shoulder.

- I´m going out to find some tools for your useless stove! Wait a moment.., Jim suddenly stopped himself in mid-air, half into a quick-paced step. He turned around slowly to face his mother.

- How do you even know Dimitri Yazova?

- My, that took some time, Jim..

- Very funny!

- But I´m not surprised you ask, actually. You´ve been so busy with your work lately, I wouldn´t find it strange if you´ve never met before.

- Aha.. You never answered my question, how do you know the guy?

- Why, he´s the one who came around and fixed our electricity with new circuits two years ago. You were on your way to the baker´s when he arrived and it was raining like I´d never seen it rain before, Sarah explained and when Jim thought about it, he actually did remember that night. Mostly because he´d been forced to go out into a dark night with pouring rain and lightning cracking the sky. Jim had always had this irrational phobia for lightning, he´d never managed to find out why. It´d never left him either, much to his annoyance. The lights had suddenly switched right off and Jim remembered how he´d tried to fix them for an hour before he finally gave up and went out into the storm. He needed light, as he was working on a report that had to be finished the very next morning. And as he´d delayed it to the very last minute because it´d been a very busy time at the inn, he found himself not having much other choice. He´d been soaked to the bone and perished with cold when he´d finally returned to the inn with new circuits from the baker, but when he arrived, the circuits had already been changed.

_One more reason to dislike the guy. I got soaked in vain because of him._

- Plus, he always brings us groceries from the Andromeda, for example. Ah, you know the plums for my plum tart you can only buy in the northern part of the Nebula Galaxy? He never fails to bring those, even though they´re expensive and kind of hard to find. And what´s worse is that every time, he simply refuses to let me pay for it, Sarah smiled gratefully at the thought. But Jim didn´t smile back. He didn´t like the idea of Dimitri Yazova being as familiar with his mother as to do her that kind of favor. For free. It sounded more like charity. Or ulterior motives. He didn´t like the idea of that at all.

- Oh, so practically, he´s the Good Samaritan running around doing you favors? You ever consider the possibility he has ulterior motives?, Jim asked her sourly, suggesting Sarah to be naïve. She raised an offended eyebrow at him.

- James Hawkins, will you mind that spiteful tongue of yours? Dimitri doesn´t have ulterior motives, that´s what´s so special about him. Do you think I´d ever trust him if I wasn´t completely sure of that? He does those kinds of favors for all of his friends and he has many. I think pretty much everybody on Montressor knows about him. He has delivery arrangements with all businesses in Montressor, as far as I know and when it comes to personal favors, he´s the one we usually turn to when something like that happens, Sarah motioned towards the stove with a hopeless glimpse in her sky blue eyes.

- Well, if that´s so, how come I´ve never met him, then?, Jim snapped at her.

- Most probably because he´s only here for a short period because of his work and as I said before, you´ve been so awfully distracted by your work and your education, you´ve barely had any time for yourself. I think you should do your best to enjoy those five weeks with Dimitri. He´s very good at making people relax. He´s such a cheerful soul and it´s so contagious!, Sarah tried to convince him in a concerned tone of voice, but Jim refused. He placed his hands at his sides in a very unconvinced-like motion to demonstrate that.

_Yeah, making people relax? That´s a good one, alright! _

- Yeah, that wasn´t exactly my first impression of him, sorry about that, Jim replied dismissively.

- First impressions never speak the truth of how a person is like, Jim. I´ll bet that when you´re firstly on board, you two will have rich opportunity to really get to know one another..

Jim immediately heard the mischievous tone in Sarah´s statement and looked at her with disbelief as he noticed that disturbing smirk had been reestablished on her lips.

- Would you stop that infernal smirking?! You´re freaking me out! I´m not gay!

- I never said anything like that!, Sarah grinned innocently and raised her palms in the air. Jim narrowed his eyes at her and pointed a warning finger at her.

- You sure did think it!

- Sarah! I´m back and I´m starving!, a frisky female voice suddenly yelled from the restaurant and Sarah looked up with a smile at the convenient interruption.

- Oh, that´s Rita! Will you go out and ask her what she´d like to eat, honey?

- Sure, no problem.., Jim sighed heavily and pulled off his uniform´s t-shirt to replace it with his black serving shirt hanging over the back of one of the chairs. He didn´t see any point in continuing their conversation, he was fed up with talking about Dimitri. He really just wanted to get some free time to overview that whole day. It´d been a mess from the very beginning.

_Just one of those days.. _

But still, Jim couldn´t help but curse in a low tone to himself as he went into the restaurant to serve this Rita person;

- Attraction.. Tsk! Ridiculous!

He scanned the tall-ceiled room and counted the guests unconsciously; just 6 that afternoon. It was usually more, but then again, it was boiling outside and the inn wasn´t exactly the place to go if you wanted to escape the warmth. They couldn´t afford a Climate Changer, so Sarah had been opening the windows everywhere in the inn to let in the moderate cool wind, but the warmth was overtaking it and heated up the old building like a stove. The red-haired young woman named Rita was sitting with her back turned on Jim at their best table in the eastern part of the room, right beside the tall ceiling to floor three-dimensional window. Jim sighed again and shrugged his shoulders to loosen up his sore muscle before he paced for her table. He studied the full and curvy woman wearing worn down light blue jeans that reached down to her knees and a too heavily washed spring green t-shirt. She was tapping on the menu card to study the holograms illustrating the various foods they served at the Benbow while she waited and Jim stopped politely a few meters from the table, looking at her expectantly. When she didn´t take any notice of him after a little while, Jim cleared his throat and went ahead;

- What would you like to order, miss? I´m afraid our stove burned down, so you only have limited choi-, Jim asked her in an apologetic tone, but he had to stammer and widen his eyes at the sight of a beautifully heart-shaped face framed by a curly waterfall of untamed fiery-red locks and a pair of hypnotizing spring green eyes that were slowly directed straight into his own. They were highly unusual and, Jim had to admit to himself, very beautiful. They had an almost mischievous glimpse to them, which suited Jim´s overall first impression of her. She placed a finger underneath her full upper lip and pouted them into a thoughtful expression; an action that seemed vaguely familiar to Jim. And he knew why, too.

_Stop invading my mind, you ass! Get out of there! Focus on her! _

- Well, that´s unfortunate. But I think I´ll manage, everything looks delicious. I think I´ll just take the cold chicken salad, then, she decided with a bright smile that immediately lighted up the room. Jim couldn´t stop staring at her. But he quickly reestablished himself when he noticed she´d raised an expectant eyebrow at him.

_Better suit up.. _

- Why, of course.. May I ask your name, or should I just call you beautiful..?, Jim instantly bombed her with one of his most charming smirks, despite the fact that he already knew her name. His hopeless stance from just seconds ago was past and an all new side of Jim showed itself as he ran a hand slowly through his hair. His forehead locks fell gracefully back to rest at his temples just like he knew they would and he tugged subconsciously at his shirt. His habit of leaving the first two buttons undone suited him very fine right at that moment, as it revealed his crafty, masculine collar bones and the upper parts of his chest. He looked stunning and he knew it. It was only rare that he had the time and mental energy to really show it off. Right now was one of those rarities. He sent the room a quick second glance, noticed all female eyes were on him and smirked contentedly.

_Oh yeah.. This is much better, it´s been a hundred years since I´ve been this relaxed.. _

He looked back into those beautiful spring green eyes and sent Rita a smoulder that would´ve made most women fall into a swoon right into his arms. But Rita just looked at him for a moment and simply burst out in a loud laughter. Everybody in the restaurant looked over their shoulders and up from their meals to see where it came from and Jim felt his cheeks start to redden at the unwanted attention.

_Weird.. What did I do wrong..? _

- Oh my, I´m so sorry! You just, oh no, you sounded just like my Captain there.. He hits on everything that moves, too! You´re simply adorable..!, Rita giggled humored.

_Everything that moves..? Oh, come on.. _

But Jim didn´t let her outburst get to him for very long. He quickly felt his confidence return to him and he leaned carelessly against her table.

- Adorable as in, a strong, handsome kind of way..?, he said a little too confidently and took advantage of his unbuttoned shirt to flex his chest muscle to make it look firmer. Rita just studied him through humored eyes, which threw Jim a little off.

- Yeah, definitely just like my Captain.. The name´s Rita, she evaded Jim´s question and attempts at seducing her very smoothly by smiling and holding out her hand to Jim. Jim was just about to take it and kiss the back of it, but before he had a fair chance to, Rita just took a firm grip around his hand and shaked it enthusiastically. And very firmly. Jim had to close one eye half not to whimper and jerk his hand out of hers.

- Pleasure.. My name´s Jim, he presented himself in a slightly strained voice.

- Jim. Such a strong, handsome name.., Rita winked at him, using the very same words Jim had just seconds prior. He felt his cheeks begin to burn once again as he realized what she´d just pulled on him; she´d managed to mock him for flirting with her! Jim had to admit that he was impressed. And slightly annoyed with the feeling of his warm cheeks.

- Would you like a drink on the house, miss Rita?, Jim quickly tried to distract her from noticing with yet another charming smirk.

_Don´t give up easily, Jim, hard-to-get chicks dig stubborn guys running in their heels.. _

- Oh my, just call me Rita! But why not, since you offer so kindly, I´d like a big glass of milk! I´m close to dehydrating!

- Of course. I was thinking.. You´re not from around here, right? Are you free later tonight, I could show you around?, Jim asked her with a confident smile. He was absolutely convinced she´d accept him just a little this time.

_Something´s got to give. _

- Well, yes, it just so happens I´m free. Are you asking me out?, she fished almost eagerly and Jim smiled faintly while he tried to hold back the triumphant hint to it.

_Yes! Nailed it! Aah, I´m so good. _

- Yeah, I´m asking you out. Who wouldn´t, I mean, a beauty queen like you?, he said in a casual tone as he brushed his hair backwards. His efforts finally seemed to be working as he slowly started to notice a slight blush to Rita´s cheeks.

- My, you sure are a smooth talker, aren´t you, Jim?

- Well, I´m doing my best.. Should we say I´ll meet you down at the baker´s after 5?

- Sure, but isn´t it easier to just meet me right at this table? I´m most probably going to be around, as I´m residing here for the week, Rita winked at him and Jim found himself taken utterly by surprise. But it wasn´t the bad kind of surprise.

- Really? For the week?, Jim asked her in a surprised tone of voice, but really, he just felt like letting his features break out into a sly smile. She´d be able to attract his attention from those dreadful five weeks he had coming. It couldn´t be more perfect.

- Well, yes. My Captain is going to fetch me this Friday, she told him with a smile and Jim nodded automatically.

_Yeah, fine, enough about your Captain, already!_

- Sounds nice. Well, I´ll just be a minute fetching your salad, Jim smirked at her before he turned his back and went straight into the kitchen. He had some triumphing to do for his mother. He barged right in, saw his mother doing the dishes by the sink at the left side of the kitchen and exclaimed;

- There! I just got a date with the most beautiful girl in this town, Rita! How´s that for getting to know Dimitri Yazova better?! Ha!, Jim gloated with a triumphant smile. Sarah only turned around slightly to study Jim out the corner of her eye. Jim didn´t like the little triumphant smirk hovering around her lips. At all.

- Well, actually, that is getting to know Dimitri better, as Rita´s his cook. She´s employed on his merchant ship.., Sarah smiled faintly and returned to the dishes. Jim barely heard what she said after the word ´cook´. He was too busy trying to prevent himself from tearing his hair out of his scalp and hold back the twitches at his eye.

_WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME EVERYWHERE?!_

* * *

His brother had barged in the door in his usual clothing; dirt stained white shirt and tight dark red riding pants. He´d greeted him the way he always did and he´d been humming cheerfully to himself, which wasn´t out of the ordinary, either. But what was getting to the black-haired 31-year old man sitting behind his black-painted pine desk was that his brother normally returned home from Council meetings vivid with rage or just in a plain killer mood. And now, he wouldn´t stop humming and singing and prancing and dancing around like a fool! What in the world had gotten into him was beyond Tomás. Sure, his brother was normally a singing, prancing and dancing fool, but this was unusual. After 15 minutes with regularly interrupted concentration, five binned documents that were supposed to be report attempts and an additional grey hair, Tomás had it. His dark blue eyes flashed as he spun around in his office chair when Dimitri entered the kitchen again.

- Would you choke on that infernal noise coming out of your pie hole?! I´m trying to concentrate here!, he exclaimed in frustration.

- Oh, I love you too, my lovely brother, Dimitri laughed and before Tomás knew of it, Dimitri had pranced up behind his chair, spun it right around and pressed his lips against Tomás´ forehead in an all too affectionate gesture. Tomás slapped at him and exclaimed in irritation, but Dimitri had obviously foreseen he would and pranced right off again before he had a chance to reach him. Tomás sent him spiteful glances through the corner of his eye while he wiped at his forehead.

- Good to see that some of us has the time for fooling around. Didn´t you have some paperwork to attend to?, Tomás asked him sourly, but Dimitri only bothered to send him a quick second glance.

- I don´t want to, it´s boring, he stuck his tongue out in a mocking gesture before he went up to the coffee machine. He wrinkled his nose in disappointment when he got closer and saw that it was empty.

- Awwh, Tomás, that´s not nice. You didn´t even leave an itsy bitsy bit for me?, he whimpered faintly and looked lost like a little puppy while he stared demonstratively at the coffee machine.

- I thought that much was obvious to you.., Tomás sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair as he tried to concentrate on the report he´d been interrupted in. Dimitri kept staring at the machine for a while and sent Tomás begging glances through the corner of his eye. Tomás tried his best to ignore him, but after a little while he couldn´t stand it anymore.

- Would you stop it?! You can forget it, I´m working!

Dimitri sighed deeply and looked longingly at the coffee machine.

- Forget it.., Tomás repeated himself tiredly. Dimitri suddenly turned around to face Tomás with the most glassy, most intense puppy eyes Tomás had ever seen him pull off yet. He strained himself to his very limits to look seriously at his brother, but when the expression on Dimitri´s face was accompanied by the faintest little whimper emerging from deep down his throat, Tomás had to admit his defeat. He smiled faintly and lowered his gaze to the table.

- You´re amazing.., he breathed out and got up from his chair with some effort. He knew he might just as well make some coffee for his intolerable brother, he´d never stop before he did. Dimitri had always been hopeless to work any kind of machine except spacecrafts.

- I know, Dimitri´s face immediately cracked up in a bright smile and the puppy face was gone with the wind.

_I swear, if you´d been a dog.. You´d be wagging your tail insanely fast right now.. _

Tomás went up to the kitchen counter and started preparing to brew another jug of coffee. Dimitri watched him with eagerness shining in his eyes and Tomás found himself, once again, wondering why his brother hadn´t been equipped with a tail from nature´s side. Dimitri suddenly looked at Tomás with a happy glimpse in his eyes.

- You know what I think, Tomás?

- No, what?, Tomás replied in a tired tone before all of a sudden, Dimitri had jumped him from behind and clung annoyingly to his back.

- Hey! Get off of me!

- I think you´re the best brother ever!, Dimitri grinned happily and Tomás sighed again.

- Yeah, I know you do. That doesn´t mean I have to return it..

- Awwh.. That´s not nice.. And here I thought we were going to cuddle and be all brotherly bonding and-

- That´s not called ´brotherly´, you freak of nature, that´s called being gay! Get off of me, you´re creeping me out!, Tomás hissed and wriggled Dimitri off of his back. Dimitri disengaged wisely before his brother decided to strike on brewing his coffee for him. Instead of bugging him, he just decided he´d dance around the kitchen with an invisible partner while he hummed the tunes of some love song to himself. Tomás leaned his loin against the kitchen counter while the coffee machine did its work and couldn´t help but lower his head to his chest and giggle faintly.

- What is up with you today? You´re acting totally weird, he giggled and held a hand up in front of his mouth when Dimitri bumped into the table.

- Whoa, who put that there? What are you talking about, I´m just in a good mood!, Dimitri smiled brightly as he continued to waltz around the kitchen. He came up to Tomás and took his hands from their leaning position against the counter.

- Oh no.. No! Dimitri, you ass, I said no, Tomás laughed while Dimitri pulled persistently at him.

- Oh, stop yourself, you know you want to! Dance with me, it´s no fun without a partner!

- Go ask Dad or something, I don´t have time to play with you!, Tomás waved him off and disengaged. Dimitri, however, didn´t quite agree on that one.

- Daddy? He couldn´t dance properly, not even for his life! He´s too old and stiff-legged!, Dimitri laughed cheekily and gave up on trying to get Tomás to dance with him. Tomás saw him continue his dance but stop abruptly when a loud clearing of a throat coming from the door frame clearly suggested Dimitri to be somewhat in trouble. Tomás couldn´t help but smile gleefully when he noticed Dimitri had already put up the biggest, most innocent smile he could muster.

- Daddy! I´m back! Have you had a nice day so far?

John leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest and legs crossed at the ankles. He smiled cheerfully at Dimitri although a dangerous glimpse was to be spotted in his eyes.

- Oh, I´ve had a mighty fine day so far. Although, my old leg here feels a little stiff.. Why don´t you go do the dishes for me, my lad?, John replied in a hinting tone of voice and tilted his head in the direction of the sink with his eyebrow raised demandingly.

- Yes, Daddy.., Dimitri scratched at the back of his head like a boy who´d been caught in the middle of something he wasn´t supposed to. He went for the sink and Tomás just couldn´t help himself;

- Ha! Serves you about right!, he threw triumphantly after Dimitri, but flinched involuntarily at his father´s next exclaim;

- Tomás! Didn´t you have something better to do than fooling around with your brother? I seem to faintly recall you had a report to write?, John pointed to the table in the middle of the room.

- But, I- Aah. Yes, Dad, Tomás breathed out and gave up on trying to explain. He returned to his office chair and sent Dimitri´s back a childish spiteful glance.

- Goodness me.. Can´t have a moment of blissful peace to myself in my own house.. One more interruption from you two and I´ll have your hides! In other words, shut your blasted traps or get out of here!, John threw over his shoulder while he left the kitchen. Tomás waited a couple minutes and listened to the sound of Dimitri doing the dishes. Then, he decided to end the silence.

- Thanks, Dimitri, now that you´ve made me take some of the garbage for you, you owe me!

- Anything you´d like, Tomás, Dimitri said in a low tone and made Tomás jerk his head up from his Documania, an electronic writing tool with a hologram screen and a keyboard to match.

- Excuse me? Did you just say what I just thought you said?

- Hmm? What did I say?

- You said ´anything you´d like´. Since when do you agree with anything I say?

Dimitri shrugged and looked as if he hadn´t heard a thing Tomás had just said. He was going at that humming some love song again and Tomás furrowed his eyebrows when he suddenly noticed the little foolish smirk hovering around Dimitri´s lips. He thought back for a moment and realized it´d actually been glued to his ugly face all along. Almost as if he wasn´t able to wipe it off. Tomás smirked down at his Documania and said in a low voice;

- By the way.. You never told me how the meeting went today?

Tomás studied Dimitri´s profile through slyly narrowed eyes to keep an eye on his reaction. There was almost none, as Dimitri only furrowed his eyebrows as if he didn´t even remember and kept going at a plate in the sink.

- Right. I´d almost forgotten.., Dimitri trailed off and Tomás raised an eyebrow in wonder.

_What..? _

- You? You´d forgotten that you´ve been to a meeting with the Council just a couple hours ago? Dimitri, normally, you never forget that kind of thing for at least a week. And you make sure we don´t forget, either. See my point? Are you sick or something?

- Nah, I guess I´m just in a good mood today.., Dimitri shrugged casually, again in that tone suggesting him to be consumed in his own thoughts. Tomás got up from the chair and tailed slowly towards him as he realized just what was wrong with his brother. He smirked and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

- Who is consuming your thoughts, Romeo?

- I have no idea what you´re talking about.

- Oh, stop yourself! You´ve been all dreamy doe eyes ever since you came in that door! You love struck teenager, you´re smiling like a fool! Just look at you!

- Tomás, stop yourself! I´m just in a good mood because my proposal finally got a chance!, Dimitri couldn´t hold back his laughter and gave himself away.

- Really? You got that stuck up wise ass to take to the idea of passenger transportation? That´s great, man!, Tomás laughed and gave Dimitri a hard slap in his back.

- Yeah, I almost couldn´t believe my own ears, either. I´m bound for Montressor to pick up my very first passenger in a week´s time, Dimitri gloated proudly and took another plate from the sink. Tomás eyed his chance immediately;

- Ooh? And who might that be?

- A young man employed Cartographer at the Council. For another Circle, unfortunately.., Dimitri breathed out the last word underneath his breath, but Tomás just caught it.

_So that´s the case, huh? Fallen for the Cartographer? Dimitri, you sly dog! I had no idea you were into men.. _

- Okay.. So, what´s his name?, Tomás said innocently, pretending not to notice the dreamy glimpse in Dimitri´s eyes when he said the name;

- James Hawkins.

- Aha! Busted! You told him you´ve got the hots for him, then?, Tomás smiled brightly when Dimitri immediately widened his eyes and looked at Tomás with horror.

- Yeah, I see right through you, Tomás nodded contentedly and had to giggle at Dimitri´s horrified expression.

- Wha- What- You- Argh, blast you.., Dimitri gave himself away very elegantly and had to drop his forehead to his palm.

- So, if you were able to talk, what were you going to say, again?, Tomás grinned cheekily and dodged Dimitri´s hit to his shoulder just in time.

- Get away from me!, Dimitri laughed and launched a tea towel to Tomás´ face. They went at it for a little while, teasing one another like they always did before Dimitri eventually found his way back to the sink and Tomás returned to his report. He sent Dimitri´s back a little glance before he asked again;

- So, have you told him?

- Heh, are you insane? If I´d told him, he´d have launched me to the floor, head first. I´m just glad I´ve been able to keep my head on my shoulders up until now.., Dimitri said with torment in his voice as he caressed his throat gratefully.

- Oh yeah, he must be brunette..

- How the blasted hell did you know that?

- You´ve always had your thing for aggressive brunettes. How´s that working out for you, by the way?, Tomás grinned cheekily as he chewed at one end of his pen. Dimitri sent him a glance over his shoulder.

- Shut up!

Tomás giggled humored and returned to his Documania, still chewing on his pen.

- Nah, I think he´s out of my league.., Dimitri breathed out with torment after a little while.

- Everybody´s out of your league. The women you´ve scored were all drunk or just had a plain stupid moment.., Tomás smiled and Dimitri immediately went at him;

- Hey!

- You asked for it!

- I did not!

- Did to!

- Did not!

John grinned hopelessly and shook his head from the other side of the door. He´d been standing leaned against the wall for the last ten minutes, just listening to his boys. He smiled faintly as he pushed himself off the wall and limbed slowly through the living room to his office.

- Finally.., he breathed out with a content smirk.


	6. Chapter 4 The Crew

_So, I think I´m gonna start throwing small messages at you guys up here before the chapters :D These past few days I´ve been going crazy writing, I´m telling you, I wrote half of this chapter in some sort of writing rampage :D Yeah, I have wiped the drool off of my face and gotten rid of the rabid look in my eyes xD Plus, reread the Prologue, please, I´ve rewritten it so that you guys could understand it a little better ;) I´ve been correcting some minor mistakes in chapter 1 as well, and I´m going to do the same in chapter 2, but of course, up to you whether or not you´ve got the patience to read it again. Although, rereading the prologue would be adviceable xD Anyways, I just wanna say that I´m sorry for being such a slacker and that I´ll try and upload more often :) We gotta get this thing going, so if you guys got anything for me, like requests or ideas or improvements for my story line, come at me :D I looooove feedback, so give it to me! o,O xD Also, when we get further into the story, if you´d like me to write oneshots of something you´d like to happen, give it, dammit :D I´ll write it, it´s good training for both writing skills and imagination :D So, I´m gonna get out of your hair, (yeah, Pia, that one was totally meant to throw you off, (my cousin ;) she can´t take that way of speaking :D ) and get to writing a preview for you guys of chapter 5, which is going to be named The Crew Part 2, ( surprise! ). This chapter´s dedicated to my two friends, Pia and Maiken, for graduating their studies :D Good job, girlies! ^^ Over and out! ^^ _

_**One Week Later**_

- Now, where´s that blasted animal?, Dimitri´s impatient voice broke the silence in the narrow dining room. A tall man with green-bluish eyes and combed light brown hair raised his head from his midday snack to look out of the open door frame separating the dining room from the galley; his Captain was circling the tables and chairs in the dining room, his eyes glued to the floor in search of something. The man smirked as he noticed Dimitri was only wearing one white sock, the right one. He put a handful of blueberries in his mouth and munched them charmingly while he grinned;

- Elena take your sock again, Captain?

Dimitri sent him a pair of very disapproving eyes obviously telling him to mind his own business before he bent down to look under one of the tables. The man shrugged and added in a more reasoning tone;

- Well, just sayin´, you really should´ve learned by now, never keep your left sock out of your sight while you shower, you know she´ll be-

- Shush, Darryl, don´t you have anything better to do than eat and talk all the time? Go mop the deck or something.., Dimitri trailed off and waved at his mechanic before he chewed absently at the side of his left index finger. Darryl just shook his head with a smile and munched some more berries while he watched Dimitri´s hunt for his cat; he firstly circled around the dining room once more, then proceeded into the galley. He moved slowly with purposeful steps, almost as if he was trying to sneak up on the cat. When Dimitri closed in on the northeastern part of the galley, he narrowed his eyes slightly when his keen eyes spotted a movement. He knew full well there was a tiny hole in the wall close by, a narrow passage opening that Elena could just squeeze herself through that he´d made for her himself. He smiled slyly and walked even slower for the effect before he stopped beside the opening of the hole.

- I wonder where she is.., Dimitri spoke to himself in a low tone and tapped at his upper lip with his finger. He sent the opening a second glance before he squatted down silently beside it and leaned forwards ever so carefully to take a peek inside. He narrowed his eyes to see clearer in the darkness.

- Come on out, you little rat. I know you´re hiding in there somewhere.. Ha, I knew it! Gotcha!

A little meow of protest followed by a lightning fast ball of red fur launched itself out of the opening, dragging a white sock with it by its mouth. Dimitri tried to grab it, but the cat was way too fast for him and the only reward he got for his efforts was landing flat on his stomach on the planks of the galley.

- Elena! Will you get back here, right this instant! You blasted animal, I don´t have time for this today! Argh!, Dimitri exclaimed in irritation and dropped his shoulders in defeat as he watched his cat fly up the stairs leading from the dining room up to the middle deck. Darryl just couldn´t help himself; he had to burst out in an uncontrollable laughter that forced him to hold his stomach. Dimitri narrowed his eyes at him, supporting his chin in the palm of one hand and tapping at the floor with the only four fingers of the other.

- Darryl? My very favorite lad? If I didn´t know any better, I´d say you´re mocking me right now. But of course, I do know better.. Isn´t that right?, Dimitri asked him, his tone ever so slightly spiteful and clearly suggesting Darryl to choose his next words wisely.

- My god, you should´ve seen your fa- Oh yes, yes! You do know better! Always!, Darryl immediately held back his laughter, but he didn´t succeed at all as little whimpers and snorts still escaped him.

- That´s a little better. Now, eat your blasted berries and shut your trap, Dimitri hissed as he got up from his belly down position and brushed the dust off of his clothes.

- Aah, look at that.. Blast you, Elena, I´m going to get you for this, Dimitri grumbled in a low tone followed by a couple of Tarussian curses. Darryl firstly noticed then, but something was definitely changed about his Captain that morning. He furrowed his eyebrows slightly to put a finger on it. Then it struck him;

- By the way, what´s the occasion for that fine haircut you got? And you polished your fine shoes, too! That´s not like you, all, well almost, decent-looking!, Darryl exclaimed cheekily, referring to Dimitri´s ever breeze-ruffled, uncombed thick hair. He next to never bothered to get a haircut, let alone polish his shoes. The only possessions he bothered to maintenance were his leather jackets and his weapons. Other than that were rare sights and definitely tied together with an occasion of some sort. Dimitri normally just cut his locks shorter once a month, as it fell naturally in short cascades and complimented his face. But just that once, it was combed and even shorter than usual. Darryl received yet another glance of disapproval for his cheekiness.

- ´Almost decent-looking´? And just what do you mean by that?, Dimitri asked him, arms crossed over his chest. Darryl immediately looked up at the ceiling and whistled in innocence;

- Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.

Dimitri raised an eyebrow at his mechanic in an overall ´I´m not convinced´ kind of expression.

- Is that so?

- Yup! But, seriously, what´s the occasion?

- There is no occasion. I went by the local barber shop and figured I´d treat myself for once, Dimitri shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. Dimitri often ran a hand through his hair. Darryl had seen him do it so many times that, with time, he´d come to know that there were three ways he normally did it; one was when he was frustrated. One was when he got embarrassed or flattered. And one was when he was trying to look casual and hide something. This time, it was the third. Darryl smirked knowingly and was all in all very pleased with himself and his ability to read his Captain. He leaned his loin against the kitchen counter behind him and felt like it was his turn to send Dimitri an ´I´m not convinced´ kind of look. Dimitri quickly noticed and looked right back. His eyes evidently asked Darryl; ´What are you up to now?´.

- Lies. A haircut is no treat for you, Darryl then stated in a very matter-of-factly tone. Dimitri furrowed his eyebrows at him.

- Oh yeah? Since when?

- Since always. You hate people messing with your hair. Besides, you´d shoot anybody who´d try and cut it. Except for me when I shorten your bangs, but that´s totally different, Darryl shrugged and pushed himself off of the counter. Dimitri only looked at him for a short while, then shrugged his surrender.

- Yeah, I probably would´ve shot the barber.. But then again, the man is intolerable.

- A bit like you, in fact, Darryl added cheekily under his breath and put up a wide innocent smile when Dimitri sent him a second glance and a smirk.

- Aha, so funny, so funny.. Anyways, I´m outta here, I have some business to attend to before we launch. You go right ahead, my tracker, find Rita and our little passenger. She´s at the Benbow Inn, by the way, Dimitri winked and ruined the tracker aspect as he turned around to leave the galley.

- Yup, got it! Whoa, wait a moment! The Benbow? Really? Yay, then I´ll get to see Jimbo! If he´s there, that is. And the passenger´s whereabouts?

Dimitri immediately froze in place, turned around slightly to study Darryl out the corner of his eye and raised an eyebrow very slowly at the mention of the all too fluffy pet name.

- Well, if you know ´Jimbo´, then you´d also know our passenger.

- You mean, our passenger is Jimbo?!, Darryl immediately exclaimed happily and Dimitri raised his eyebrow a little higher.

- Yeah, he is..

- Oh man, five weeks with Jimbo on board! This has got to be the best day ever!

- Aha.. Attractive pet name you´ve got for him. He didn´t shoot you down for it yet? How do you know him, anyways?, Dimitri immediately started to interrogate Darryl suspiciously.

- I know, right? It´s totally cute! And he thought it was nice, I´ve called him Jimbo ever since! He took a liking to it, he said so himself, Darryl proclaimed proudly, obviously pleased with himself.

- Aha..

- And how I know him, well, he took that course of the mechanic education with me. The one in the first semester, you know? Only, he dropped out after the second. I have no clue why, really. The man was a natural. Economic trouble be my guess. It was so boring to take the rest of the education with the others, Jimbo were the only one whom I could really talk to, you know? Or, sure, I could talk to the others, but not in the same way, you know?

- What is it with you and that ´you know´ all of a sudden? Would you say something else, you´re driving me nuts!, Dimitri exclaimed in irritation and Darryl smirked contentedly, having done it on purpose.

- But, wait a moment, dropped out, you say? Should prove interesting.., Dimitri smirked dangerously and scratched at his newly shaved stubble. Darryl raised an eyebrow at his Captain´s cunning-looking expression and smiled faintly.

- What are you plotting, you sly dog?

- I have no clue what you´re talking about. I need to be on my way, else I won´t finish what I´ve scheduled for today before we launch. Do bring Ava and Dave with you to the inn and order something while you wait for me, I think they´re bored. They´ve spent their entire morning driving me insane.

- Yup, as always!, Darryl heeded immediately and Dimitri smiled warmly at him before he shook his head.

- Don´t you ever change, Darryl.., he grinned hopelessly as he paced up the stairs.

- Nope, I won´t!, Darryl grinned back and stood for a moment, scratching at the back of his head while he tried to come up with something he knew he´d forgotten. Then it struck him.

- Ah, Dimit- Argh, damn it! He got me again, Darryl grinned when he realized Dimitri had managed to change the subject of their conversation and get away with it afterwards so smoothly, he´d completely forgotten to hold to his earlier question about the haircut. It was typical Dimitri to avoid what he didn´t want to talk about that way.

- Every time.., Darryl sighed hopelessly and went up the stairs to the middle deck to fetch Ava and Dave.

* * *

- I think that´s everything I´ll need.., Jim trailed off to himself, studying the little piece of metal in his hands. It was a medium-sized spare part for the board of his Surfer, a spacecraft he´d built himself. He couldn´t do without her, the love of his life, for those five weeks.

- You´ll be my savior, beautiful. Get my baby up and running again, won´t you? Let me get away from that ship every once in a while, that´s gonna be great!

A thought suddenly stroke Jim; why didn´t he just get married to his Surfer, sail right off into the sunset and never worry about all those things he had in his head? He could have it all planned out just like that; 75 years old and married to his Surfer. No bickering, no problems. Just him and her. Jim smiled to himself at the thought.

- Man, I am a sorry human being.., he grinned and shook his head. The inn was visible just a short while afterwards. It was placed on top of a hill just outside the borders of Montressor City. It was easier to surf up there, but as the Surfer didn´t work, Jim had found himself forced to walk. Not that it wasn´t a nice walk, it just took him longer to get back and forth. But then again, he wasn´t really in a hurry to get back and most probably meet that ´blasted´ Tarussian again. The happy thoughts of getting to repair his Surfer were immediately replaced with gloomy ones at the thought of the man he dreaded to meet again. But he succeeded in banishing his thoughts to the back of his head, refusing to let that ruin his up until now perfect day. He started to whistle, held his back straight and walked a little faster along the slightly curvy road the last 500 meters to the inn. When he reached the door, he breathed in deeply, took a firm hold in the handle and barged in.

- Mom, I´m- Oh, sorry!, Jim smiled apologetically when he bumped directly into a tower of a woman. He looked up a ten centimeters into a shining pair of cat-like emerald eyes and had to gasp for his breath; she was freaking taller and broader than even Cynthia! She snorted overbearingly and flipped her shoulder long dark brown hair.

- It´s no problem, pipsqueak. I´m not made of glass, as you can see, she smiled superiorly down at him and paced right past him out the door with long strides. Jim looked after her, his eyebrows raised and ran a hand through one of his bangs to tame it.

- Okay then.. Pipsqueak. Somebody haven´t learned how to behave in kindergarten, he shook his head with a little grin. With his 1, 86 centimeters, Jim was well above average height for the Onglash people and knew very well that he was anything but a pipsqueak. This was also the only reason why he didn´t let it get to him.

- Jimbo! My man, you´re finally here! I can´t believe we´re gonna spend five weeks together, man!, a loud enthusiastic voice suddenly sounded and Jim found himself dangling above the floor in a tight embrace from behind in huge arms that were damn close to breaking his back.

- D- Darryl?! C- Can´t breathe!, Jim gasped out and Darryl immediately put him back down again.

- Oh dear, sorry! But gosh, I missed you, man! How have you been?, Darryl grinned apologetically and placed one of his bear paws on Jim´s shoulder as he´d leaned forward to take a couple deep breaths.

- Well, as you can see, I´m a little short on breath here.. Besides that, I´m just fine, Jim smiled between his strained breaths.

- Awh, stop your whimpering, would you? You know you love my hugs! It´s what´s been keeping you going ever since you left me, you just don´t know it yet, Darryl grinned, good-natured as always. Jim couldn´t help but smile warmly up at the giant man standing 2, 06 centimeters tall.

- Yeah, that´s right, I forgot, Jim grinned back and embraced Darryl properly this time around.

- Yay, Jimbo-hug! You look so thin and fit! Have you been eating enough?, Darryl spoke in a motherly tone as he poked at Jim´s flat, muscular stomach. Jim grinned and slapped at Darryl´s hand.

- Yeah, I eat just fine, thank you, and I see you´re doing damn good on that part too, as usual, huh? Midnight snacking overtake you again, old chap?, Jim teased the larger man and made Darryl poke at his own starting belly.

- Yeah.. It keeps following me around, this little sucker. I think it might have a crush on me!, Darryl suddenly looked up with a big smile and made Jim crack open.

- Oh no, Darryl, you didn´t! Following you around, that´s just hilarious!

Darryl grinned with him, looking overall pleased with himself for making Jim laugh.

- But that won´t work on me, belly, ´cause I´ve already got a girlfriend!, Darryl added in a determined tone to his own stomach, which only made Jim laugh louder.

- Darryl, stop! I can´t take it anymore! You´re making **my** stomach hurt!, Jim grunted thrice and held a hand up in front of his mouth to stop his hated laugh. Darryl immediately jerked his head up and smiled even wider.

- Yay, mission accomplished, I brought it out! You have such an adorable grunting laugh, Jimbo!

- It´s not adorable, you ass, it´s annoying!

- No, it´s not!

- Is too!

- Is totally not!

- Is totally too! Who´s enough of a nutshell to be your girlfriend anyways?, Jim asked Darryl cheekily to get the conversation away from his laugh. It was embarrassing enough as it was. Darryl looked a little around him and blushed ever so slightly. There was already an affectionate smile hovering around his lips before he found what he was looking for; the tall woman from before, she´d silently sneaked into the inn again, sitting at a table by herself while she studied an advanced looking gun. Darryl moved a tad closer to Jim to whisper in his ear.

- You see that perfectly shaped creature right over there? Isn´t she a beauty? She ain´t mine just yet, but I know she´ll fall for my charms sometime, she just can´t resist me!, Darryl smirked and winked at Jim. The tall woman looked in their direction only once before she snorted in that way she had. Almost scornfully. Darryl dropped his shoulders a little, but he was stubborn.

- Just you watch; hey, beautiful! Ava, my sunshine, won´t you come over here and give me a little lovin´? I could use that.. Ava? Sweety bum?

The tall woman named Ava only studied the gun closer while she fiddled all too obviously at the trigger. ´Dare call me sweety bum one more time and have a bullet planted in between your inner thighs, or shut the fuck up. Your choice´. Darryl swallowed hard and turned hurriedly towards Jim again.

- She´s totally into me, she´s just playing hard to get. Audience fear, Darryl grinned and pointed backwards at her with his thumb.

- Yeah, I can tell, she´s totally into you. Right with that ´sweety bum´, ugh, I swear, I thought you had her there.

- Yeah.. What a bummer. She´s a tough lady, alright. But she´ll be mine, you´ll see. She´s so lovely, isn´t she?, Darryl sighed dreamily as he offered Ava another glance over his shoulder. Jim looked with him and furrowed his eyebrows.

- Yeah.. Lovely, he nodded.

_If you´re into psychos._

- Hard to get, but if a hard dance is what she wants, heck, I´ll dance hard, alright.., Darryl suddenly smirked dangerously with his eyes glued to Ava.

- Darryl, did I mention that you´re awful?, Jim grinned and let his forehead drop into the palm of his hand while he sat down on a chair beside him. His feet were starting to ache slightly from that walk he´d taken for the spare part. He leaned against the back of the chair, but removed himself when he felt something hanging over it. It was a deep red leather trench coat and Jim had to widen his eyes in disbelief at the sight of the rare fabric.

- Damn, that´s one fine trench coat!, he exclaimed and stroked it gently. It was well maintained despite the old signs and wrinkles of time´s bite.

- You really think so? It´s me Cap´s, I just think his obsession with leather is creepy.

- Hm? I´ve always thought leather was kind of cool, I just can´t afford it. Story of my life, I guess. So, you´ve got a Cap now, huh? What are you, mechanic?

- Yeah, for six years now. I wanted to be his apprentice, but he wouldn´t hear of it, not before I got myself an education. When I told him I couldn´t afford one, he stepped right up and paid everything for me. Said he´d hold the spot open for me if I still wanted it afterwards and here I am!

- Wow.. That´s kind of much to do for just anybody. He must´ve seen potential in you, huh?

- Heh, I don´t know about that, you´d have to ask him that.., Darryl grinned flattered and scratched at the back of his head.

- Don´t be so modest, I´m sure you´re a fantastic mechanic! But I´ll ask him, alright. You think I can try this thing on?, Jim asked Darryl curiously, caressing the red leather once more. Darryl shrugged.

- Sure you can, but I´m not sure it´ll fit you. He´s not very tall.

- Who cares, it´s a trench coat! It sure is broad enough. Man, how big is this guy?, Jim wondered out loud while he swung the trench coat over his shoulders. It was three sizes or so too broad for him and the shoulders hung loosely on his own. Even the sleeves were way too broad. Darryl´s Captain had to be somewhat of a muscle bundle with those arms.

- He weighs about 264 pounds, Darryl stated matter-of-factly.

- 264, seriously?! What is that, muscle or fat? More importantly, how do you know, you sly dog?

- Yeah, we´ve got a thing going on.. It´s pure muscle. Well, according to himself, at least.., Darryl giggled cheekily and held a hand up in front of his mouth. Jim couldn´t help but giggle with him, but their fun and giggles were interrupted by Sarah who came out of the kitchen just at that moment.

- Jim, darling?, she called softly.

- Yes, Mom?

- Won´t you go out in the garage with this tool box, there´s a polite young man out there working on the stove, she smiled at him and Jim immediately put his hands on his hips.

- Great, what´s he charging for that? I already told you I´d take a look at it, Mom! What do you suppose I´m made of, money?

- Oh, I´m sure we´ll figure something out about that. Why don´t you go out and see if you can help him with anything?, she waved him off dismissively and Jim pulled a little back to look suspiciously at her.

- Okay.. You´re acting weird. Again.

- Nonsense. I´m simply asking my son to go and make some use of himself. Off you go, shoo!

- Yeah yeah, I´m on it! Would you at least tend to Darryl while I run your errands for you?

- Oh, Darryl, you´ve been here so many times before, you know how to help yourself, right?, Sarah smiled at Darryl and patted him on his hair.

- Yes, Ma´am!, he smiled brightly and hurried off into the kitchen. Jim grinned hopelessly and followed him to go out the back door. That was the shortest distance to the garage and Jim felt lazy.

When he opened the door to the squared garage and tool shed, he had to gasp for his breath at the sight that met him; a brand new stove, the modern kind that had to be placed on top of a kitchen counter shone vividly on the floor, packed in transparent plastic to protect the expensive glass. A new kitchen counter in the exact same light beige color as the others in the kitchen stood beside the counter stove.

_What does he think this is, some sort of door selling? I didn´t order any of this and Mom sure as hell didn't either. And if she did, so help me.. _

Jim looked up when a faint roll of little wheels caught his attention and he saw the old stove lifted up on a crafty jack in the middle of the garage. Muscular legs dressed in a tight pair of black jeans and polished shoes to match stuck out underneath it. Jim couldn´t help but stare at the thin line of tanned skin revealed between a white shirt and a brown worn-out leather belt. Jim shook his head after he´d subconsciously let his gaze follow the man´s separated thighs and..

_Holy shit, what am I doing again? I´ve got to be suffering sunstroke. And the sun isn´t even much out today. _

Jim ran a hand through his hair and prepared himself for a heated discussion. Operators normally didn´t take no for an answer, but he truly didn´t have any money to spare for his repairing.

- Hey, Mr., I don´t know what you´re charging for doing that, but if it´s not for free, I´m going to have to ask you to leave it to me. We haven´t ordered that fancy stuff over there, either. I don´t really know what my mother´s thinking, she must think I´m made of money, Jim grinned apologetically but stopped himself when a deep giggle resounded from under the stove.

- It´s really no trouble, James Hawkins, I´m almost done. I´ve got some bad news and some good news for you. Which would you prefer to hear first?

_Oh, no.. Anything but.. _

The supporter rolled out and Jim stared directly down into the amber golden eyes he lastly wanted to see right at that moment.

_Him. _

- You!, Jim nearly spat out after he´d regained himself.

- In the flesh. Missed me?, Dimitri smirked in that intolerable way Jim just couldn´t stand and he saw red.

- Oh, hell no!, he snarled and placed his boot in between Dimitri´s legs on the supporter and pushed it hard underneath the stove. Dimitri exclaimed in surprise and pain when he bumped his head on some part of it.

- Ouch! Blast it, James Hawkins, that temper of yours will be the death of me!, he half laughed, half whimpered underneath the stove.

- Damn it. Didn´t kill him, Jim hissed through gritted teeth and marched right out of the garage. He only shouldn´t have gone for the front door of the inn, as a very familiar animal stood out on the edge of the property, eating from the little patch of green grass that´d grown there.

- And you, too?!, Jim immediately froze as he noticed the horse and it whinnied sharply at him in recognition. It left its grass scavenging and started to half tail, half run towards him.

- Oooh no! No. Don´t you even think about it! No, stay! Good horse, stay! No! No, get away from me, you crazy animal! Go away! Shoo!, Jim panicked and ran for the tree they had at the other edge of the property. He was suddenly grateful that his mother had insisted they kept it or else he might´ve been dead meat to a fucking horse. He climbed it a couple of meters in a matter of seconds and smiled triumphantly down at the horse when it came rumbling to the trunk and looked up at him with big brown eyes.

- Yeah, you´re not getting a piece of me today, horse! You see this? This is the lunch you´re not getting today! Ha!, Jim wriggled his behind a couple times and heard a deep outburst of laughter from behind him. Jim knew all too well who it was and he spun around in the tree with anger flashing in his eyes. Dimitri came tailing towards the tree with his forehead dropped to his palm, looking like he was having the time of his life.

- Acero, I know you´re crazy about the guy, but I don´t think he returns it, Dimitri laughed loudly and had to lean forward to support his hands on his knees while he laughed it off.

- What are you laughing at?!, Jim immediately bit at him, embarrassed and fuming at the same time.

- Isn´t that obvious?! You´re sitting in a tree! Hiding from a horse! Oh no, this must be- The most hilarious- Thing I´ve ever seen!, Dimitri spoke in bits between his nearly choking laughter and he had to hold his stomach. Jim filled his cheek with air and blew it out slowly in irritation.

- I´m so sorry, the blasted animal-

- ´Has its own life´, yeah, I got that the first time you said it! Maybe a rein would help you solve your little control problem over that ´blasted animal´? You ever given that a second thought, huh?! Idiot!, Jim raged from up in the tree and much to his annoyance, Dimitri only laughed again.

- I just knew you were Sarah´s son the moment I laid eyes on you. Those eyes and that spiteful tongue is nothing you just miss about your family, James Hawkins.

- Yeah, that´s great and all, but I´m kind of dangling here, would you get your little horsey away from me already?!

- Acero, Dimitri grinned a command and turned his hand palm up and lifted it. Acero immediately stood up on his hind legs and placed his front hooves against the tree. Jim squealed when it reached his arm and started to munch at his sleeve.

- Get it off of me! It´s trying to eat me!

- Relax, you sissy, it´s not like he´s going to gobble you up. Horses aren´t exactly predators. Take a grip in his mane and swing yourself on his back, he´s trying to help you get down.

- Sissy? Sissy?! I have never- You´re the sissy! You´re the sissy and I can get down just fine by myself, thank you! I don´t need your horsemanship bragging nor your horse to get down! Sissy! Hey, you! Go away, shoo! Get!

- Give it up already, he only answers to me. When he feels like it, that is. Iispaniol breeds, they´ve got a mind of their own, Dimitri sighed with a faint shake of his head. He leaned his back carelessly against the trunk while he seemed to study a fold in his shirt.

- Great, so what you´re telling me now is that you´ve got an animal you can´t control?, Jim scowled down at him while he continued to struggle with Acero.

- Well, when you put it like that, then yeah, I guess that´s what I´m telling you, Dimitri only shrugged and Jim sighed deeply. He looked down at Acero´s long head and noticed that the sleeve of his shirt was almost soaked in horse drool. He wrinkled his nose and pushed at Acero´s muzzle.

- Would you stop trying to eat me, you´re drooling!, Jim grumbled while he kept on pushing and Acero kept on drooling and munching on his shirt.

- Awwh, Acero, won´t he give you some loving? James Hawkins, you heartless man, just look at those big brown wet eyes! How can you resist such a face?

- Easy peasy, I´m just imagining that it´s your ugly face and note to myself that it belongs to you.

- I´ll take that as a compliment, baby, Dimitri pouted his lips and sent Jim a flying kiss from his palm.

- You do that, honey, Jim nodded sarcastically back at him and sent him another scowl, just for good measure.

- Awwh, you called me ´honey´! You´re so adorable, Jimbo!, Dimitri laughed and put extra stress on the all too fluffy pet name Darryl had come up with. Jim immediately jerked his head back in Dimitri´s direction and stared down at him with disbelief shining out of his eyes. Then it changed into rage. He´d nearly stormed down the tree and strangled the annoying individual, but he pulled himself together right in the last moment. Dimitri only giggled good-natured and added with a little gesture towards Acero;

- He´s really trying his very best to score you. He´s never acted like that towards strangers before. And I´ve had him since he was a foal.

- Yeah, that´s all very interesting.., Jim skulked while he tried to find an escape. He turned around slowly in the tree, away from Acero. The horse snorted faintly in discontent and tried to reach Jim. It managed to reach his heel and pulled carefully at Jim´s sock.

- Would you stop that?, Jim exclaimed in annoyance and wriggled his foot to make the horse let go. He only shouldn´t have done that, as Acero perceived it as Jim wanting to play. It jerked its head backwards, still with his teeth planted solidly in Jim´s sock. Jim squealed again as he lost his balance and started to fall directly down towards Dimitri.

- Whoa! Look out!

- Jim, blast you! Got ya!, Dimitri breathed and while they fell, Jim felt a strong hand support the back of his head. He caught the powerful scent of lavender when his face was pushed against a broad shoulder and he heard a deep moan of pain escape Dimitri when they hit the ground. Jim perceived that Dimitri´s hand had been caught underneath the back of his head and he instinctively lifted it to free it. Dimitri had actually protected his head from taking the impact. Jim almost didn´t dare to move, afraid that something in his body was broken and that he´d find out if he moved. He also didn´t open his eyes. Jim didn´t really know why. Dimitri´s unbelievably heavy weight was supported against him for a moment before he lifted it. Jim gasped faintly in shock when he felt something large push against his intimates as Dimitri tried to get up. Much to Jim´s annoyance, his body reacted in a most disturbing way by tingling all the way up from his feet to his chest.

_What is this sorcery? You can´t be seriously turned on by this.. Come on. _

Jim flinched involuntarily when he felt a soft caress on his cheek. He blinked his eyes open and stared up into those intense amber golden eyes.

- Jim? Thank goodness, I thought you´d fainted. Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?, Dimitri´s accented voice was suddenly so deep with concern, much deeper than Jim had heard before. And that roll to his R´s unfortunately didn´t help on the tingling feeling Dimitri had left in his body. Jim was just about to reply, he wanted to say something to get Dimitri off of him, make him stop talking to him in such a soft and concerned voice. But to his surprise, he found himself incapable of moving a muscle, let alone utter a word.

_Why now? Of all times, I have to lose my voice now? _

_**Was he handsome?**_

Jim recalled Sarah´s earlier words and furrowed his eyebrows. Now that he looked closer, Dimitri actually was handsome. In a very masculine, broad kind of way. And Jim couldn´t even lie to himself about not liking the haircut Dimitri had gotten since he´d last seen him. The wild wind-ruffled longer hair he´d had at the meeting was now replaced with a short haircut that followed Dimitri´s natural hair borders. Jim let his gaze fall when something black caught his eye; Dimitri´s half unbuttoned white shirt fell to lie on Jim´s chest and Jim was able to see pretty much everything there was to see about Dimitri´s upper body. Including the large tattoo he had on the left part of his very evidently marked chest. The two enormous arms surrounding him on both sides were tattooed as well and Jim couldn´t help but stare. He´d always had a tattoo fetish, he had no clue why. Jim let his gaze follow Dimitri´s upper arms to his broad shoulders and down his firm-looking chest all the way down to his stomach and abdomen. Again, very evidently marked and very.. Well-trained.

_Holy.. How much does he work out? _

Jim was awoken from his daydream when Dimitri flexed his large stomach muscle. He immediately tore his eyes away, suddenly very aware that he´d been gawking. Like, really gawking. It didn´t make it much better when he noticed Dimitri was smirking very contentedly down at him.

_Oh, great.. _

- You like tattoos, do you?

- Eh.. No, I-

- I´ve got some more, on even more interesting places of my body, if you´d like to see them?, Dimitri winked down at him and made Jim´s blood boil and unfortunately, his cheeks flush.

- I think I´ll pass, thank you, he squeezed out between his lips, tilting his head away from Dimitri´s.

- Blasted shame. I often tell myself I´m looking quite stunning with them. But then again, I always look stunning. I feel even better now that I know you think so, too.., Dimitri smirked self-satisfied down at him and Jim could only stare in return.

_You- I don´t believe you, you conceited, stuck-up.. Short bus! _

Dimitri evidently saw the anger burning in Jim´s eyes and decided to let him off the hook before he pushed his luck too much. But he just had to go there;

- I´ll be honest with you, Jim. I´m tempted beyond my limits to try and kiss you. But just between the two of us; I don´t think I dare.

- Just between the two of us; I think that´s very wise of you, if you favor that huge dick of yours. Now, if you´d get it away from my thigh or I swear, I´ll cut it off!

- Temper temper, James Hawkins, over time you just might like my huge-

- You´re just not that lucky! Get off of me, Shorty!, Jim hissed through gritted teeth and arched his knee dangerously close to Dimitri, more than ready to kick. That made Dimitri immediately move his private parts, he obviously hadn´t forgotten his encounter with the stove out in the garage. When Jim got up, his face had already turned red in anger. He suddenly remembered the conversation he´d had with his mother earlier that week and wanted answers.

- And just who do you suppose you are, coming here out of the blue, thinking you can do whatever you damn well please? Is that fancy new stuff out in the garage another one of your good Samaritan deeds?

- Excuse me?, Dimitri furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest.

- Oh yeah, do play dumb! As if you don´t know what I´m talking about! So what´s your motives? You trying to make my Mom fall for you or something weird like that?

Dimitri only stared at him for a moment, completely stunned by his sudden outburst with all kinds of accusations. Then, he simply laughed.

- If I was trying to make Sarah Hawkins fall for me, I´d get a pat on my chin and an overbearing look from her for my efforts! I´m way out of her league. Much like I´m out of yours, ain´t that right?, Dimitri tilted his head and smiled at Jim. Jim only raised his eyebrow in return before he answered;

- Damn straight. But if that ain´t what you´re after, then what are you doing here? I wasn´t expecting you till tomorrow.

- Actually, we launch today. Change of plans, Dimitri smiled matter-of-factly.

- What if I´m not ready for your little ´change of plans´?

- Better hop to it then, cause I ain´t waiting for your gorgeous little bum. I´ve got to give your little sweetheart a run for her money, she´ll adore me when I wave her in on the next port, Dimitri smiled slyly and rubbed his hands together at the thought. Jim only felt his cheeks flush. Again.

_Argh, shit, he saw right through me? We´ve only met twice and he already knows I´ve got the hots for Cynthia?! This can´t be! Am I really that transparent? _

Jim immediately tried to divert the conversation smoothly to another subject than his crush and reestablished his cold facades and voice.

- Aha. You ever consider the reason why she ´adores´ you is because you´re absolutely and incredibly-

- Attractive? Handsome? Come on, we both know there´s a little something going on between the two of us, Dimitri smirked.

- Intolerable. I was going to say intolerable. But then again, I think I´d better change it to delusional.

- What?, Dimitri immediately replied and Jim smiled inwardly, very content with having removed that annoying smirk from his face.

- Well, since you´re trying to convince yourself that I´ve got the hots for you, you must be delusional, Jim only shrugged, not expecting Dimitri´s reaction to that;

- Ugh, shot through the heart! There´s the James Hawkins I know and love, he shot me down again! You brutal, ruthless man!

- Yeah, you go take a dip in a pool, come back to reality, you drama queen.., Jim waved him off with a roll of his eyes and started to walk away.

- Hey hey hey, don´t just walk away from me, I´ve still got some things to tell you about that stove! Besides, it´s not very polite to walk away from a first date, Jim!, Dimitri grinned mischievously and started to jog up to Jim´s side, but he was brought to an abrupt halt when Jim turned right around with anger flashing in his eyes. He moved up close to Dimitri, pressing a finger hard against his chest.

- Alright, listen up, mister; I don´t want to know about the stove! It´s working perfectly fine, as it always is and I am in fact able to tell! So I don´t need your help! Also, this is not a date! It has never been and will never be, because I´m not interested in you and I seriously have no time nor mental surplus to deal with you right now! I don´t know who you think you are and I don´t know why you´re telling yourself you´re being funny right now, but I can tell you as much as you´re being a pain in my butt! And you know what, if you´re not going to do nothing but sexually harass me, here´s your option; stay the **fuck** away from me and my mother, get the **fuck** off of **my** property and **my** inn, and take that fancy **shit** you bought with you, too!, Jim fumed furiously and Dimitri held his hands up in the air and grinned.

- Easy easy, Jim! I was only messing around with you, there´s no need to take it to thatlevel.

- No need? No need?! You´re giving me god damned little choice, the way you´re behaving! And it´s just not enough, so get off of my property, Dimitri Yazova!

- **Your **property? I seem to ever so faintly recall that I own about 45 % of this place, so you can´t exactly ask me to leave, James Hawkins. Only your mother can. I come and go as I please around these parts and I don´t see how you can change that, Dimitri suddenly spoke up, obviously having held himself back judging by the sudden intensity in his voice. But Jim wouldn´t let that get to him.

- You just watch me. Our partnership in this inn is hereby dissolved and I´d like to buy back the part you´ve so conveniently bought of **my** inn!

- Firstly, you with **your **inn and **your** property again! Don´t you get that you´ve got absolutely no say in such matters? You own nothing of this inn just yet. And secondly, really? You wish to buy it back? For what money?, Dimitri asked him with a challenging nod of his head and Jim could only stare at him in blind rage while he felt his fingertips burn and itch to launch this persistent little man to the ground. He hated him. He truly hated him with every little inch of his entire being. How dared he bring their money trouble into this conversation? How did he even know? Jim narrowed his eyes at Dimitri and squeezed his hand into a tight fist.

- I´ll get the money, he only just managed to breathe out, the fury evident to his voice.

- Don´t bother. I´m not interested in selling. Besides, I´ve been the nice guy up until now around you. I normally praise myself for being a tolerant man. You shouldn´t try and make me exceed the line of my patience. I tend to get awfully spiteful around people that doesn´t treat me with respect. And you´re surely in no position to talk to me in the fashion you´ve so obviously gotten used to. I´d strongly suggest you changed that, or I might just as well be as rude to you as you are to me right now. And trust me, you´d regret that, Dimitri spoke in a friendly tone, but the lurking threat just underneath the surface was plain to be spotted, if not in his voice, then in his eyes. Jim stared directly into them, defiant and fuming with rage. Who did this man think he was?

- Excuse me for being slightly rude, but I truly can´t see a reason why you should behave like this, Dimitri changed his stance awkwardly and seemed to regret what he´d said. But Jim couldn´t care less. Dimitri had just stepped on a mine he never should´ve even gotten near to.

- No, I´ll bet you can´t. Then again, you probably always were used to getting what you want, huh, rich guy? But that´s fine, ´Mister Yazova´, can I get you anything?

- You don´t have to do that, Jim.

- Oh, you don´t want anything? Alright then, if there´s anything I can do for you, anything at all, you just call on me whenever you find out what you´d like, I´ll be right there, fast as a lap dog. I´m very poor, so I´ll take what I can get. I´ll even let you mount my sorry ass if that´s what you´d like? As long as you pay me for it.

- Jim, that was uncalled for, I-

- Oh, you don´t want that either? You sure are the difficult man to please. Well, if you can´t use any of my services, Mr. Yazova, you´ll have to excuse me. I´ve got some work to tend to, unlike certain others, Jim spoke in a cold tone, drenched in irony and contempt. Dimitri sighed deeply as Jim turned his back and marched directly into the kitchen, the steam almost going out in little clouds through his nostrils.

- Great, just great.. Jim, wait up, would you? Jim!, Dimitri called out and made it to the back door just in time to have it smashed to his face.

- Ouch! Again, with the head!

- James Pleiades Hawkins, what in the world are you doing?! Dimitri was just outside the door!, Dimitri heard Sarah scold her son in shock and the loud footsteps that speed walked through the kitchen.

- Yeah, I know. And he can go to hell for all that I fucking care!, Jim yelled in fury and Dimitri peeked in through the window beside the door to see Jim pacing right up the stairs in the kitchen, leading up to a narrow hallway with two doors, one at each side of the stairs. He went in the right, slamming the door shut behind him.


	7. Chapter 5 The Crew Part 2

Dimitri sighed deeply again and took a firm grip in the door´s handle. Sarah just stood at the foot of the stairs, seemingly paralyzed for a moment before she started yelling;

- James Pleiades Hawkins, will you get down here and behave like the 23-year old you are! You hear me?! Jim!

- Sarah, don´t. I said some things I shouldn´t have. It´s my fault, Dimitri hurriedly said, placing his hand on Sarah´s arm.

- What did you say to him?, Sarah immediately turned towards him and crossed her arms over her chest. Her sky blue eyes so identical to Jim´s had a demanding light to them and Dimitri knew he was somewhat in trouble.

_Here comes the storm. _

- I, eh.. I mentioned my part of the ownership of the inn. And I was being a nasty bitch when I mentioned your economic situation. I went way too far and for that I´m sorry. Truly. It wasn´t my place, Dimitri lowered his head while he waited for the scolding of the century, but it didn´t come. Only a heavy sigh and a sharp exhale followed in the wake of his apology. Dimitri looked up to see Sarah´s head resting in the palm of her hand. He immediately felt guilty and touched her hand gently.

- Sarah.. I´m so sorry. I didn´t mean to put stress on-

- Don´t you apologize, Dimitri, I know. He´s fine, he´ll come around, Sarah smiled up at him and put her free hand on Dimitri´s as to reassure him everything was going to be fine. Dimitri couldn´t look her in the eye for long, though. After a little while of silence, she just burst out with the truth;

- Jim´s just.. Well, he´s never been able to accept our hardships. Whenever it comes to our economics, he tends to get defensive because he blames himself. For everything. Ever since his father left, he´s.. He´s been different. He used to smile a lot. Laugh and joke all the time. But that all changed. Jim´s always felt like he had to take care of everything, of the inn, of me. He stopped laughing. And he began to suffer migraine as he got stressed over time. He´s always worrying and I´ve told him so many times it´s because of the inn. I´ve told him so many times that we have to sell it eventually or simply have it burned so that we could rebuild it. But he always says right back; ´Mom, who are you kidding? If we had the inn burned down, we wouldn´t have nothing but the property left. And that´s worth jacks. We wouldn´t have any money to rebuild the inn for.´ He just won´t accept that it´s a lost cause, this inn. He´s so stubborn. I haven´t been able to recognize him for some years now. He´s not the same son I had when he was younger, Sarah admitted in a low voice while she fiddled at the chain around her neck. It was a thin golden necklace, with a golden heart-shaped pendant attached. There was a smaller heart engraved in the middle of it. Dimitri simply smiled when he noticed something glitter on Sarah´s hand; a little tear had fallen from her lowered gaze and down to the pendant between her fingers. Dimitri smoothly pushed the tiny button at the side of the pendant and a hologram screen emerged from the center of the inner heart-shape. Sarah grinned faintly when small pictures of Jim growing up showed themselves on the screen. She wiped a little at her eye when a picture of Jim as about 18 years old popped up, dressed in his all new white Academy Uniform. Dimitri furrowed his eyebrows slightly at the sight. Only the Elite students received a white uniform at Graduation.

_Of course you were a straight A student in the Intergalactic Academy.. I should´ve known. _

The picture showed Jim from his tilted right side, proudly smiling and holding his back straight in that way he had. Natural authority. Dimitri smiled faintly to himself when he realized he still found that stance attractive.

- He was so proud that day.., Sarah trailed off to herself as if nobody but her was there before she withdrew the hologram screen back into the center of the pendant.

- I´ll bet you were just as proud. Maybe even more?, Dimitri smiled at her as she put the pendant behind the chest of her dress and looked up at him.

- I was, she agreed.

- Sarah. How can you say you can´t recognize your own son? Personally, I´d say you have quite a lot to recognize in him. And I´ve only met him twice. That says a lot. I mean, just look at him, your eyes are completely identical. And the temper he´s got, ugh, don´t even get me started on that one. I immediately knew whose son he was, solely based on that. And besides that, well, he´s so strong-willed, much like his headstrong mother. That´s why he´s not going to give up on the inn so easily. And I wouldn´t want you to for the world. This inn is your heart blood. And your home. You and Jim, you´re so strong that you take all of the pressure and hard times you´ve ever had and you place them right on top of your shoulders, carrying it without a whimper, never once letting anybody know how you truly feel about that weight. And that´s respectable, Sarah, truly, but sometimes, even strong people like you needs to take all of that pressure off of your shoulders and think to yourself that it´s alright to let somebody else carry it for you. Just for a little while. And I think Jim needs somebody to carry that weight for him, so that he can take a breather. I´m more than willing to carry some of it for him. For both of you. All you have to do is ask me. I thought you knew that, Dimitri smiled down at her and cupped her face in his hands, caressing her tears away before he let them fall to his sides again. Sarah let her eyes drop to the floor before she replied in a faint voice;

- I do know that.

- But?

- But I wouldn´t want you to spend your time worrying about us. You´ve got so many other things to tend to. I wouldn´t have the heart to ask of you to help us more than you already do. Thank you for listening, though, Sarah hurriedly steadied her voice and wiped the rest of her tears away.

- You´re more than welcome, Dimitri said immediately, watching as Sarah poured three mugs of coffee and placed them on a tray. He was just about to let her walk out of the kitchen, but somehow, he couldn´t.

- Sarah, Dimitri grabbed her by her upper arm, gently but firmly. She stopped and looked back at him, a question forming in her eyes.

- You also do know that I can only help you if you´ll let me?, he said, the hint in his voice obvious. But Sarah simply smiled at him and caressed his cheek like she always did.

- I know. But don´t you worry about us, Dimitri. We´ll pull through, somehow, she smiled and straightened her back before she walked out of the kitchen. She´d made her decision. And Dimitri was left to look after her back with the faintest hint of a smile hovering around his lips.

- I don´t doubt that.

A clapping sound suddenly sounded from the top of the stairs and Dimitri spun around himself faster than lightning, his heart caught in his throat. Jim had taken him completely by surprise.

- Bravo! That was so touching! You almost made me cry as well, Jim smiled deceitfully, his voice drenched in sarcasm. He was leaned against the door frame with his long legs crossed at the ankles, his sky blue eyes once again flashing with defiance as he looked down at Dimitri.

- Blasted shame I didn´t get to you. Maybe crying would´ve helped on that little temper problem you´ve got, Dimitri smiled thinly in a flat voice. Jim pushed himself off of the door frame and started to tail down the stairs.

- Oh, I´m sorry, I thought you liked my little temper problem. What was it you said again at the meeting? Oh, right, ´you´re so aggressive, James Hawkins, I think I like it´, wasn´t it?, Jim mimicked both Dimitri´s accent and his way of talking at the meeting. Dimitri narrowed his eyes at Jim, slowly realizing that he was close to having had it with him.

- Don´t you make a fool of me, James Hawkins, Dimitri warned the tall brunette as he reached the bottom of the stairs and tailed closer to him. Jim immediately gritted his teeth in a wolf-like smile.

- Who, me? There´s no need, you´re doing a pretty good job on that one all by yourself. So, how did you like the story of my life?, Jim smiled, but it was far from genuine. He stopped right in front of Dimitri and continued when he chose to remain silent;

- Sad, isn´t it? The poor little boy, left by his run away father to fend for himself and his mother all alone. They´ve had it tough for years and years. Then out of the blue comes this strong, tattooed sailor. A hero, so to speak, ready to do anything in his power to enlighten the day of the poor little boy and his mother. Sounds vaguely like a fairy tale come true to me. Little too good to be true, are you, Yazova?, Jim said in a hinting voice while he went around Dimitri in a threatening circle.

- Why don´t you go ahead and tell me just what you mean by that?, Dimitri replied in a low tone, having caught the hint. Jim let out a scornful short laugh, almost like a sharp breath, before he said;

- Oh, I think you know very well what I mean by that. You´re a clever guy, aren´t you? Sure don´t act it, but you are.

- Really? Well, I´ve always thought I was only a little above average intelligence, but if you say so, I´ll gladly believe you. Do continue, I love compliments, Dimitri finally raised his eyes from the floor and sent Jim a smile over his shoulder.

- Yeah, you hide behind your jokes all you´d like. I see right through you, Yazova. You see, I´m pretty good at reading people. Always been. I couldn´t really place you before, but I think I´ve got you down to an r by now, Jim smirked confidently and tailed even closer to Dimitri. Dimitri only smiled overbearingly and much to his amusement, his reaction seemed to throw Jim a little off.

- Have you, now?, he obviously challenged Jim and crossed his arms over his chest.

- Yeah.. I have. You think you´re something else, don´t you?, Jim narrowed his eyes at him and nodded once towards him. Dimitri only smiled even wider and let it develop into a self-satisfied smirk.

- Definitely. Always been. Go on, he encouraged and laughed inwardly when he saw new annoyance form in the depths of those sky blue irises.

_Blast me, those eyes are fine.. _

- And a whole lot of your crew seems to think you are something else.

- That´s because they´re forced to be around my glorious presence every day. It tends to smitten people with me. I´m just popular like that, Dimitri shrugged and cocked his head to the side to show off one of his most charming smoulders to Jim.

- Right. You´re sure that popularity doesn´t emerge from something else than your charms and your good looks?, Jim put a sarcastic emphasis on ´charms´ and ´good looks´ while he crossed his arms over his chest. Dimitri immediately eyed his chance;

- My, James Hawkins, are you coming on to me? I find you dangerously attractive looking as well. Wanna try and make out for a second?

- Yeah, you keep on dreaming.

- Alright, I´ll be serious. Other things my extreme popularity could be emerging from?, Dimitri giggled humored and straightened his back in feigned seriousness.

- Your wallet, perhaps?

- So what you´re trying to say to me is that you think I bribe people to like me?, Dimitri concluded and scratched at his chin with a coat of thoughtfulness over his eyes.

- Not exactly bribe them. More blackmail them, Jim accused with a sly smile.

- Interesting.. Blackmailing. That´d make me a criminal. A smooth criminal.

- It would indeed. Take my mother, for instance. You just tried to convince her to accept your little acts of charity and you almost had her. You´re driving a clever game there, pushing buttons. Which in her case would be me. I wonder how you knew I´m a weak spot to her?

- ´Little acts of charity´.. Well, I guess I´m simply good at reading people as well. You didn´t think you were the only one with that ability now, did you?, Dimitri sent Jim an amused smile, which only made him roll his eyes in reply.

- Whatever. Take Darryl then. You paid his entire education and now, he´s practically your willing slave, just like the rest of your crew. Can I be as cheeky as to ask you why?

- Of course you can. I simply felt like doing something nice for a bright young lad whom I took a liking to. And as I´m "rich", as you call it, I had the possibility to make his life a little bit easier. Turns out the rascal was stubborn enough to ask me to hold a place for him in my crew and as I didn´t expect him to bounce right back to me after he graduated, I agreed. Four years later, I found my sorry ass held to that promise and I suddenly had myself a first class mechanic. I haven´t regretted it once. Well, except when he gets on my nerves, but he does that all the time, so I now consider that a part of his charms. Anything else you´d like to know?

- Alright, you know what, you´re not going to stop glorifying yourself, so I´ll just cut to the chase; the only possible way you could be as rich as you are would be because you´re taking advantage of poor people, which includes about 90 % of this freaking planet´s habitants! You gain trust solely based on your smartass gap and your money, then when you´ve gained that trust, you´ll betray it just to redraw your help and ask it back, with interest! And you´ll make an entire planet indebted to you in that manner, so that you can keep your glorious income! How else would you explain how one man can befriend an entire planet going solely on the basis of his non-existing charms?!, Jim suddenly exploded as he had it to above his head. Dimitri simply looked down at a tiny slip of paper in his hands while Jim went rough on him. When Jim fell silent, Dimitri fiddled a little at the slip before he raised his gaze to meet Jim´s.

- Ever so slightly uncalled for.. That one really hurt, Jim, Dimitri said in a low hurt tone, but Jim couldn´t afford to care;

- Good. That´s nothing less than what you deserve, he snorted and held his head high. Dimitri lowered his gaze to the slip again and smiled faintly before he put it on the pine table in the middle of the room.

- I see.. Darryl? Come here, my willing slave!

- Uhm, finally! My, Captain, you´ve decided to make me your sex slave after all?, Darryl answered from the restaurant and came into the kitchen moments afterwards, his voice slightly muffled after having taken a big bite of a boiled egg in his hand. Dimitri furrowed his eyebrows at him for a second before he answered;

- Not exactly. We´re in big trouble. Jim figured out my master plan.

- Your master plan? Sounds interesting. Why haven´t I heard anything about that?, Darryl asked, although somewhat disinterested in anything but his egg.

- Oh, because I figured Jim here could tell you about it much better than I can. I´ve got some errands to run, you know, like poor people to blackmail, abandoned housewives to take advantage of. Later!, Dimitri saluted with his hand to his forehead before he turned his back and headed towards the door.

- But, Dimitri, weren´t we going to that mechanic store down in the city to- Eh, to buy something?, Darryl hurriedly stopped himself in mid-sentence and glanced sideways to Jim before he corrected himself. Dimitri held the door open with his palm and glanced over his shoulder.

- I don´t think it´ll pay. Jim here is too smart to accept my acts of charity. He knows where it´ll lead. By the way, Darryl; we launch tomorrow. At noon, Dimitri ordered, but before Darryl had a chance to answer, Jim immediately butted in;

- Hey hey, I can manage to pack today, don´t you do me any favors!

Dimitri only looked at him with another overbearing smile before he answered coldly;

- Don´t you worry, I wouldn´t dream of it. Oh, and James? I´d strongly suggest you took a nice long look up in that gorgeous ass of yours - there might be something stuck up there. And I´d say it´s a tight fit, Dimitri nearly spat the last words out with emphasis before he closed the door behind him. A little red cat suddenly shot through the kitchen to the door and meowed while it scratched at it. Then it noticed the open window just beside the door, jumped up on the kitchen counter underneath it and flew right out in pursue of its owner. Jim smirked self-satisfied to himself, proud of having taught Dimitri that he wouldn´t just roll belly up for him.

_Serves him just about right! _

Then he noticed Darryl looking accusingly at him.

- What?!

- I sure haven´t seen him that pissed in a while. You must´ve really hurt him. Jimbo, what did you say to him?

- Me? It was- Him! He started it!, Jim immediately came to his own defense and gestured accusingly to the door. The sound of clattering hooves against dirt made them both look out the window to see Dimitri and the cat disappearing down the road on top of Acero.

- Well, you must´ve said something to make him leave like **that**!, Darryl pointed out the window with determination in his voice and crossed his arms over his chest. Jim was just about to say something else before he was interrupted by a deep female voice;

- Drop it, Darryl, the confused lovebirds were only feeling at one another´s teeth. They´ll lick their wounds and come around. Although, those accusations you threw at him, James Hawkins.., Ava´s voice suddenly darkened and she tailed slowly towards Jim with cat-like strides, towering above him with her emerald eyes slightly narrowed. Jim had to swallow hard involuntarily when Ava grabbed him by his collar to level his eyes with her own.

- I wouldn´t try that again, just so we´re clear. You have no idea what kind of a man our Captain is and you´re probably not interested in knowing, either. But I can tell you as much as, when it comes to being taken advantage of, Dimitri´s had more than his share. And he hates it. So, I think that´ll be the last thing he´ll ever do to you. Just so you know, Ava smirked grimly and let go of Jim´s collar. She turned right around on her high heels and started back into the restaurant. But halfway there, she stopped and seemed to remember something;

- By the way, with regards to your earlier comment on his entire crew being willing slaves.. You´ll find out soon enough who´s the slave and who´s the master - well, at least between Dimitri and myself, Ava laughed deeply before she strode right out of the kitchen.

- Holy fuck.., Jim breathed in relief and corrected at his shirt. He´d never tried being intimidated by a woman before, but this Ava person? She sure took the lead.

- She´s so dominative.., Darryl sighed dreamily after her and Jim sent him a ´are you for real´-look. He chose not to comment. Instead he simply lowered himself to a chair at the pine table and rested his head in the palm of his hand. He felt so tired all of a sudden and the back of his head throbbed annoyingly.

- Jimbo? Are you alright?, Jim heard Darryl´s concerned voice from somewhere behind him. He couldn´t really place it, it sounded almost distant. Jim suddenly became aware that his eyesight was a little blurry and he shook his head to clear it.

- Yeah, I´m fine, he smiled thinly when it went away. But he knew he wasn´t.

- Okay.. You don´t look fine. You got a little pale just now, Darryl persisted and wiped carefully at Jim´s forehead.

- I really am fine, Darryl, honest. I just think I need a glass of water, it´s probably the heat, Jim smiled and pushed Darryl´s hand away gently. Darryl immediately lighted up in a relieved smile and dashed to the sink to fill a glass with water. Jim sighed and shook his head.

_Great.. It´s starting again. _

Jim noticed the little note Dimitri had placed on the table out the corner of his eye. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked stubbornly away.

_No! You´re not even going to think about it! He only got what he deserved. _

Darryl and Jim both looked up when a deep voice with a strong Iispaniolish accent resounded through the restaurant of the inn;

- Dimitri Yazova, you intolerable individual, will you show your ugly face to me immediately!

- Sorry, Tomás, the intolerable individual´s not around, you just missed him, Ava replied for Dimitri and the smirk in her tone was evident to hear, even from where Jim and Darryl were.

- That´s Tomás, I wonder what Dimitri did to him this time. Come on, Jim, Dimitri will come around later, Darryl giggled with mischief and went for the restaurant. Jim furrowed his eyebrows and looked after him, but he didn´t follow just yet. His natural curiosity had already won and while he desperately tried to fight it, he couldn´t help but send the note reluctant second glances before he snatched it in a moment of impulsivity.

- Hey Jim, you coming?, Darryl stopped and turned half in the door frame. Jim hurriedly tucked the note down into his pocket and decided to read what it said later.

- Yeah, I´m coming, he smiled and hurried after Darryl into the restaurant.

- Typical! Ain´t that typical! Everytime I need to kick that idiot´s ass, he´s not around. Typical! Dad! Dimitri´s not here, you said he´d be here!, Tomás called out the front door just when Darryl and Jim came out from the kitchen. He was a fit and slim build dressed in a pair of dark blue jeans, black shoes and a deep red shirt with faint stripes of dark blue and white on it as decoration. His hair was cut short, but the naturally thick and slightly curly hair firstly ended a little above his shoulders. That was the standard haircut for young Iispaniolish men and Jim had always found that sort of short yet long hair fascinating. He´d always wanted such a haircut himself, but his hair was way too thin and non-curly for that. He´d end up looking like the abominable snowman. Jim couldn´t help but giggle faintly into the palm of his hand at the thought.

- Would you shut your blasted yap, Tomás, this is an inn, not a playground. There are paying people dining here! Mind the minimal ounce of public respect I sincerely hope you´ve got in you, would you? I´m terribly sorry, everybody, do go on and enjoy your dinner, a low older man came in the front door, smiling apologetically at the little crowd of people in the inn who´d stopped eating to look up at Tomás´ loud outburst. They all smiled back at the man and continued whatever they were doing. He was even shorter than Dimitri, now that Jim looked at him properly; he couldn´t be more than about 1, 69 centimeters tall. Jim guessed the man was in his mid fifties and his right side was supported against a thin red cane made from a fine sort of cherry wood. His body figure was somewhat frail and thin, but despite his weak appearance, there was something unmistakable about him, a natural authority you´d be wise to heed unless you wanted trouble. Jim couldn´t help but feel like this man was someone of importance, someone wise and respectable. His hair had grey streams in the naturally light brown color, although the worn out tips of his short cut hair clearly suggested the man to have dyed his hair more than once. Jim gasped inaudibly when a pair of hazel eyes was suddenly directed straight into his own. They were a warm color, a pleasant combination between spring green and chocolate brown. The man smiled politely at Jim and nodded before he pointed the cane towards the table where Ava sat. Jim nodded back with a polite smile of his own and fetched some menu cards.

- Hi, John!, Darryl exclaimed happily and walked straight towards the older man. He lighted up in a big smile at the sight of Darryl and walked to meet him halfway.

- Darryl, my lad! It´s good to see you again, but wherever did you come from?

Tomás immediately snorted in discontent and crossed his arms over his chest. He´d slinked off to the nearby table John had pointed at after his scolding, sat himself down beside Ava and shot his lower lip out into a sulky expression.

- Do you even have to ask? The kitchen of course, where else? Ouch! Hey! Dad, that hurt!, Tomás whimpered pathetically when he suffered a hit to the back of his head with the end of John´s cane. He only snarled back;

- Silence, you blasted whelp! I think you´d be better off watching your blasted smartass tongue today rather than spouting that whimpering of yours, don´t you?

- Well, he´s actually right, I did just come out from the kitchen. Incorrigible, I know, I know.., Darryl shrugged and bent down to let John ruffle his hair affectionately.

- I see my awful son´s been taking mighty good care of you and all, huh?, John giggled and poked at Darryl´s belly with the end of his cane.

- He has, as always. But where´s Dave? Wasn´t he just with you?

- He was.. Dave? Where are you, lad?, John called out in a soft voice and an even softer voice replied from just outside the inn;

- I´m right here, John! I was just looking for Acero, but I don´t think he´s around.

- I think Dimitri must´ve taken him out for a ride, my lad, Ava says he´s not here, John said and placed both his hands on top of his cane.

- He isn´t, you just missed him. But I´ll bet he´s back within a couple of hours, Darryl smiled.

- Too bad, huh, Tomás?, the young man named Dave smirked in Tomás´ direction.

- Yeah, running off without giving me a chance to kick his ass, no fair.. Ava, you break his nose yet?

- Unfortunately, I haven´t had the pleasure..

- Shame, Tomás shrugged and they smirked disturbingly at one another, obviously at the thought. Dave only grinned heartily at their fun and giggles. He placed himself on one of the chairs beside Tomás and as Jim walked up to the table with the menu cards supported against his arm, he just couldn´t push away the nagging feeling he had of having seen the young man named Dave before. He was clearly an albino, judging by his light grey eyes that looked almost silver and the thin golden hair that was kept in a nicely combed short haircut. He was stunningly beautiful, not a single scar nor impurity in his tanned skin. Everything about his face looked heavenly; his nose wasn´t too big, his ears not too flying, his lips not too full. He had a kind of feminine face, but you couldn´t mistake his gender in spite of that. Jim judged him to be a little younger than himself; it couldn´t be more than 1 or 2 years younger.

- Can I.. Help you?, Dave suddenly asked and furrowed his eyebrows in discomfort as he looked up at Jim. Jim hurriedly shook his head and fired off a polite smile when he realized he´d been staring at the young stranger while placing the menu cards on the table.

- Argh, crap, forgive me my staring, it´s just- I can´t help but think I´ve seen you somewhere before. But I don´t recall we´ve met. I´m so sorry, I´m James Hawkins, Jim smiled and reached out a hand to Dave.

- Yes, I´m aware. You´re the guy with the Surfer, right?, Dave smiled and got up from the chair, revealing his impressive height of 1, 93 centimeters. Jim had to look slightly up at him when he took Jim´s hand and shook it gently. His tanned hand was soft, almost as if the man in front of him hadn´t executed a day´s hard labor in his life.

- Eh.. Y- Yeah, I am, Jim answered, a little thrown off. He hadn´t expected Dave to know who he was that easily.

- Yeah, you´ve got quite the rumor around these parts, that´s one thing for sure. Forgive me, I didn´t even introduce myself; I don´t reckon we´ve met, but you´ve most definitely seen me before with my father. The name´s Dave Turner.

Jim only looked up at the young man in shock, dumbfounded. The Turner family was the richest family there was on the planet Montressor and the head of the family, Dave´s father, was one of the managing directors of the Intergalactic Banking System. Dave Turner was known as the oldest son of the family and therefore the heir to his father´s position in the Banks. Jim suddenly understood he was standing in front of a person of very high influence and he didn´t know how to react. When he realized he was yet again staring at Dave, he exclaimed;

- Oh! I´m sorry, I- Had no idea who you were and- Anyway, it´s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Turner!, Jim stammered and scratched at the back of his head in embarrassment. Dave simply smiled warmly at him and took his hand again.

- The pleasure´s all mine, James Hawkins. But how about you called me Dave, I´m so much more used to that. I rarely use my last name, Dave grinned heartily and Jim couldn´t help but grin a little with him.

- You call me Jim, then.

- That´s a deal, Dave smiled before Tomás suddenly butted in from the side;

- James Hawkins, you say? How interesting.. I think we´ve heard of you, haven´t we, Dad?

- I think we have, indeed. Name´s John Leland, lad, I´m the one they call ´The Silent Cane´, in case you´ve heard of me, too.

- Pleasure. But unfortunately, I don´t think I have, Jim smiled politely as he shook hands with John.

- Just my luck. And this is the dumbass human being I often find myself embarrassed to call my son.. The other one isn´t here, but I think you´ve met him already.

When Jim only looked dumbfounded at him, Tomás quickly added;

- Yeah, the red-haired idiot who´s been going on and on and on and **on **about you for a week now. The name´s Dimitri Yazova, my brother.., Tomás added with torment and Jim furrowed his eyebrows.

_Dimitri and this guy? Brothers? Ha, can´t be by blood, judging by that height.. Besides, this guy is Iispaniol. Dimitri´s Tarussian. What´s this? An adoptive family? None of them looks alike. Wait a moment.. Going on and on about me? Argh, crap.. _

- Yes, Gods have mercy on my soul. ´Where did I go wrong´, I keep wondering silently to myself.., John muttered under his breath as he sent Tomás a spiteful second glance. Tomás only smirked and reached his hand out to Jim;

- The name´s Tomás Sarrano, pleasure to meet ya. And you gone wrong with adopting the intolerable individual in the first place!, Tomás added loudly to his father, obviously referring to Dimitri while he crunched a sugar cube from the little tray Jim had just refilled and put on the table for coffee drinkers. Strangely enough, Jim couldn´t help but take an immediate liking to Tomás.

_So they __**are**__ adopted.. _

- Mr. Sarrano, won´t you have a cup of coffee on the house? You just made my day with that comment.., Jim smirked and Tomás sent him a big smile.

- Yes please, Mr. Hawkins, I´d like that! And please, call me by my first name.

- You too, Jim smirked at him and turned around to fetch a cup of coffee.

- Tsk.. And **now **you´re capable of minding your manners? Typical. And I was actually talking about both of you when I asked where I´d gone wrong! Don´t you glorify yourself, young man, and would you stop eating pure sugar, you´ll get fat!, John snarled at Tomás when he ate two more sugar cubes from the tray and whacked him another one with the cane.

- Ouch! Again, with that stick!, Tomás grinned while holding the back of his head.

- Don´t you call it a ´stick´, it´s a manly cane, mind you! My goodness! I leave you two hopeless lads to yourselves for a couple of weeks and this is what I get? Back to where I started, typical.. One would think you overgrown kids were old enough to take proper care of yourselves without me on your backs at all times, but oooh no, that´s wishful thinking on my behalf, isn´t it?

- Yeah, you go right ahead and have a go on me for Dimitri´s behavior, I´m just as perfect as I always am.., Tomás smirked self-satisfied up at John and Jim immediately furrowed his eyebrows at the sight of it, as that exact smirk was only too familiar to him. And there was only one other person who´d been able to pull that one off before Tomás.

_Oh yeah, they´re brothers, alright.. No freakin´ doubt about that! _

Tomás´ little extra comment only made John go rough on him while he fumed and cursed, and Jim couldn´t help but grin into the palm of his hand. He tilted his upper body in to Darryl and whispered;

- Are they always like that?

- All the time, you´ll get used to it, Darryl winked down at Jim and grinned in his good-natured fashion with him. They watched as John and Tomás´ little game escalated to Tomás hiding from his fuming father behind a chair he held up with the legs pointed towards John.

- You imbecilic, unmannered, stuck up, self-satisfied- !

- Dad, Dad, watch the blood pressure!, Tomás grinned from inside his hiding and only continued to press his father´s buttons.

- Oh, I´ll give you blood pressure, alright, when I´m done with you! Put that blasted chair down and take your punishment like a man!

- No way! You´re like a freaking bull with rabies when you get mad, aren´t you aware of that?! Darryl! Dave! Save me! Old guy on a rampage!, Tomás screamed and fled around the table with the chair.

- Old guy?! You´d better pray I don´t catch you, you little- !

The entire inn was filled with laughter and not one eye was dry when John finally got to Tomás and their fight escalated into an entangled wrestling one on the floor. Jim didn´t remember just when he´d lastly laughed that hard and when peace rested over the old building in the dusty midday sun again, all of his worries were pretty much non-existing for the first time in ages. No work, no boring chores, no stress. Just fun and giggles for hours while he made some desserts and coffee with Darryl for the crew. Rita returned to the inn just two hours after Dimitri had left. She´d finished her last cooking course at an inn called The Smoking Barrels placed dead in the middle of Montressor City. Jim had found out that was the reason why she´d been dropped off a week ago on Montressor, to take that course. Rita had told him it´d been a personal dream of hers for years to take a course with Mrs. Baker as her teacher. Mrs. Baker had always been a very excellent cook and it was partly because of her the inns on Montressor were as popular as they were. In other galaxies, when you spoke of the planet Montressor, you´d be speaking of the harsh weather or the cooking at the inns. She joined in on the cooking immediately after her return and showed off some of her new skills in Jim´s and Darryl´s desserts. And while the afternoon proceeded fast into somewhat late evening, Jim found himself more relaxed and happy than he´d been in a long time. When darkness fell, Jim and Darryl went around the tables to lit candles for a more cozy lighting than the electrical ones and John immediately took advantage of it; he started to tell stories. And not just any kind of stories, but ghost stories. As soon as Darryl found out that it was about ghosts, he quickly scooted his chair closer to Jim´s and leaned in to him for protection.

- You afraid of ghosts?, Jim whispered teasingly in Darryl´s ear.

- No.. Dimitri just isn´t here and I normally sit with him whenever John tells his ghost stories. It´s not because I´m afraid or anything, I just don´t like them.., Darryl nearly whimpered back and everybody in the inn shushed them. Jim just couldn´t help but smile and add under his breath;

- They´re just stories, you big wuss..

- I know. But I´m sure there´s some truth in them. I wish Dimitri would just hurry back, Darryl whispered back and bit at the side of his thumb.

- Yeah, whatever, Jim snorted, not exactly sharing Darryl´s wish.

- Imagine this, my lads. A night, just like this one, dark and chilly. The winds howling outside and the trees screeching a lullaby to accompany it. The full moon. It´s lighting up a long lonesome road in its pale light. Have you ever crossed a bridge in the middle of the night on that long lonesome road? Looked over your shoulder to stare into the darkness behind you? Story goes you´d be wise not to. You could wind up staring directly into the red-glowing eyes of the Headless Horseman!, John exclaimed the last words theatrically and Darryl squeezed at Jim´s arm.

- Iih, Jim! Can´t we please go to bed now? I´ll have nightmares if I hear this story without Dimitri..

- Are you for real? What is he, your nanny? He tuck you in every night, too?

- He used to, Tomás revealed and made Darryl blush deeply.

- Eww, get off of me, you baby!, Jim grinned and Darryl narrowed his eyes at Tomás in contempt.

- Shut up, Tomás! I was going through a really tough time in my life back then! Just so you know..

- Yeah, he got depressed because Ava wouldn´t know of him!, Tomás grinned teasingly and Ava snorted from her usual corner;

- Yeah, couple of months in depression for never getting a piece of me and he was right as rain.

- You´re so cold to me.. Just wait till Dimitri comes back! I´ll make him kick both your asses for being mean to me.., Darryl pouted at Ava and Tomás before he crossed his arms over his chest. Ava leaned forward in her chair and smirked grimly at Darryl.

- And what makes you think I won´t kick his ass first? Been there, done that. Besides, the reason why I won´t know of you is because you´re a wuss. I need a man.

- Burn!, Tomás grinned and high fived Ava. Darryl could only stare at Ava with obvious hurt in his eyes before he scowled at Tomás.

- Fine. How about you two get together, then? I´ll settle with Jimbo.

- You´ll- You´ll settle- What?!, Jim exclaimed in shock when Darryl was suddenly all over him, smooching in to his chest like a little kitten.

- Nah, not especially interested. I´ve seen Tomás naked a couple times, his tequila worm is much too small for me.., Ava smirked again and Tomás was left to stare at Ava, much like Darryl had just done, while a deep blush went all out in his cheeks.

- We- Well, at least I know how to use it! Size don´t matter if you know how to use it properly!, Tomás immediately stammered to his own defense and gave himself away, making the rest of the crew burst in laughter.

- Burn.., Darryl grinned at Tomás and high fived Jim. They suddenly heard a ticking sound and looked to John, whom was impatiently tapping his fingers on the wood of the table.

- Eh.. Sorry, Dad. Do continue?, Tomás smiled apologetically at his father.

- Ahem, so, as I was saying.., John continued the story while Jim and Darryl left the table.

A 35 minutes later, all of the beds were made, one for Darryl, one for Dave and much to Jim´s regret, one for Dimitri as the seven rooms of the inn were all occupied by paying customers. Rita and Ava were sleeping in his mother´s bedroom. Tomás and John had already departed for another inn due to lack of more mattresses, as they only had four spares. Right at that moment, Jim truly wished they had only three.

- So, what´s between you and Dimitri?, Darryl suddenly asked while he flipped a page in the book he´d placed on top of his pillow. He was lying under his blanket on his stomach, just beside Jim´s own mattress. He´d never had a real bed, it was much too expensive.

- What do you mean, ´between us´?, Jim answered Darryl´s question with another question tiredly. He was looking over some work he hadn´t done that day, but he´d much rather just go to sleep. The back of his head was still haunting him with that same consistent throb and he was already exhausted from having to put up with it all day.

- Well, I was just thinking.. Since you´re all bickering at each other, there must be something, right?, Darryl smiled up at him, but Jim just turned his head slowly to look Darryl point blank in the eye.

- What are you suggesting?, Jim narrowed his eyes at him and dared him to go further with that line of conversation. Darryl caught the hint;

- Nothing. Nothing at all.

- Good.

Silence rested in the room for a couple of minutes before Darryl yawned widely and put the book aside.

- Well, I think I´ll tuck in. Nighty night, Jimbo, don´t stay up too long.

- Night. And don´t worry, I won´t. I´m already a zombie, Jim yawned widely too, trying his best to force his eyes to read. Then he remembered the note he´d snatched from the kitchen table earlier and sent Darryl a quick second glance; his back was turned on him. Jim smirked slyly and reached over to grab his pants. He drew out the note silently, unfolding it in the same manner. He had to pull his night-lamp closer to the note to be able to see it properly. Dimitri´s handwriting was an unusually old-fashioned one, with beautifully curved letters;

_Stove, Holden, trade in for a 3.2 Solar Sail_

_New wires for Jim´s spacecraft _

_Remember to ask Jim about the metal in the garage _

_A 3.2 Solar Sail? How the fuck would you know that´s the exact sail I´ve been saving- New wires? What´s wrong with my wiring, anyway? And the metal in the garage? What is this guy plotting? _

- Darryl? You asleep yet?, Jim asked as casually as he could, hiding the note underneath his blanket.

- Mmh-hmm.. Deeply..

- Well, obviously, you´re not. Unless you´re a night-talker and that´s just nasty. I won´t have you moaning out in the middle of the night; Oh, Ava! Ava!, Jim grinned and made Darryl grumble discontentedly at him and turn to lie on his back.

- What do you want?

- Nothing, I was just.. Thinking. Or, I was getting a little curious. What were you and Dimitri on your way out to buy today?, Jim asked, unable to hide the little tone of excitement to his voice.

- That´s supposed to be a surprise for you, Jimbo, you´re not supposed to know about surprises, you know?, Darryl narrowed his eyes at him and Jim couldn´t help but smile with anticipation against his will.

- You were planning to buy a gift for me?

- Yeah, Dimitri was.. But I guess that´s out of the picture now. Awwh, and I´d been looking forward to seeing your face, too. No fair, Darryl pouted his lips and skulked in his bed.

- So sorry. Forgive me?

- No way! Aah, that´s another bummer added to the pile for today.. Well, good thing there´s a new day in the morning.

- Yeah..

- Nighty night, Jimbo - for real this time!

- Yeah. Night, Jim breathed and settled with his blanket caught between his legs. He stared at Darryl´s back for a while, trying to get his drowsy eyes to close up on him. But an annoying thought kept popping up into his head and he sighed in torment;

- Darryl?

- What now?, Darryl whimpered and buried his face in his pillow. Jim couldn't help but grin.

- Sorry.. I just keep- There´s something I just don´t get! What´s up with Dimitri? I mean, why is he doing my Mom favors? What could he possibly hope to gain from buying us a new stove? I just don´t get the man, he frustrates me! He´s- He´s driving me up a fucking wall every time he just smiles at me, I don´t know, I- I get all defensive and.. Darryl?

Darryl laid still on his mattress with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. He gazed out the window while he breathed in a faint voice;

- So that´s what your argument was all about..

- Yeah..

- Wait a moment. So, you accused him of blackmailing poor people and taking advantage of abandoned housewives?!, Darryl suddenly sat right up in the bed, staring at Jim with disbelief in his eyes. He´d obviously remembered Dimitri´s last line before he´d left the inn in rage. If Jim hadn´t been guilt ridden all of a sudden, he´d think it funny.

- Well, I didn´t exactly accuse him, I just.., Jim trailed off while he looked into Darryl´s accusing eyes, scratching at his neck in discomfort before he blurted out;

- Alright, yes, yes, I did! So what, I mean, there must be some truth in it, or else he´d be like, the Good Samaritan or something! You can´t just walk around, spreading gifts out carelessly. Nobody does that! And even if he did, what´s in it for him? Why? Why would he do it?

- I don´t think I can answer that, Jimbo. It´s just the kind of person he is, I guess. But I´d say, go ask him yourself. That´s the best way forward. He can´t stay mad at you for long, I´m sure, he´s really taken a liking to you. He´s been looking forward to seeing you again, I can tell.

- We´ve only met once before.. And I was close to killing him, how could he possibly be looking forward to seeing me?, Jim muttered under his breath, diving underneath his blanket to hide the sudden flush to his cheeks of embarrassment and guilt.

_What is the matter with me? I __**never **__blush! _

- I don´t think that matters much to him. I remember the first day I met him, that was also the day he paid my entire education. And he´s never asked for anything in return. I was 14 back then. I was sitting on a barrel with a sign that said ´Looking for job´ on the Andromeda Spaceport. And I remember I´d never seen a prettier ship than Legacy when she docked right in front of me. You haven´t seen her yet, have you?, Darryl asked and Jim simply shook his head in reply.

- You´ve got something to look forward to! She´s Dimitri´s pride. Anyways, my hopes for employment weren´t exactly high. I knew I´d never be wise enough to take an academic education and I hadn´t even finished grade school. But I figured I was strong and big enough, my only attributes, to be somebody´s cabin boy, just to get a little living for my mother and myself. My father died from pneumonia in the winter. I was 13 then.., Darryl trailed off, almost to himself while his cheerful smile faded. Jim scooted a little in his direction and put his hand on Darryl´s.

- I´m so sorry to hear that, Darryl. You´ve never told me that before.

- Nah, old scars. Something Dimitri´s taught me is to never bore people with your scars. You keep those to yourself. I really don´t know where I would be today, hadn´t I met Dimitri.. Well, he hired me as his cabin boy for a year until I turned 15 and I could start the mechanic education. But before I left, I made him promise me that he´d hold the spot open for me till I graduated. And he did. And here I am, with the academic education I never thought I´d take and the dream job I´ve wanted ever since I was 14. And I made him take me as his apprentice, too! I truly am one of the lucky ones, Darryl smiled cheerfully, but Jim couldn´t smile back.

- He truly means a lot to you, huh?

- Are you kidding me? Dimitri´s given me my life, I owe him everything. I also have him to thank for meeting Ava.., Darryl sighed dreamily and the moment was gone. Jim could only smile faintly to himself and shake his head.

- Geez, man.. You´re head over heels for that woman, Jim grinned and settled in his sheets. Darryl did the same with another sigh.

- Yeah.. It´s that love, Jimbo. It gets you nowhere, but you´re still stuck with it. Tsk.. Oh well, I´ll go to sleep now. For **real real** this time, **no** more interruptions! I need my beauty sleep!, he grinned and pointed a finger at Jim.

- Alright, alright, I´ll shut it!, he grinned and put his hands in the air.

- Good, Darryl grinned back and turned to lie on his side again. But it was him who broke the silence himself after another minute;

- I think I actually do have an answer for you after all, Jimbo.. Something I remember Dimitri answered me when I actually asked him the exact same question; why he´d pay my entire education when he didn´t even know me.., he trailed off again and Jim laid waiting for the next part that never came while staring up at the stars through his ceiling window.

- Yeah? What did he say?

- ´Why not?´, Darryl smiled at Jim nostalgically over his shoulder. Jim only furrowed his eyebrows.

- ´Why not?´ That´s all you got? That is the most cheesy- Look, what am I supposed to do with that? That´s not even a proper answer!, Jim immediately turned to lie on his side and supported his weight on his elbow.

- I know. But he´s always been cheesy like that. Ever since I´ve known him.. And I´ve actually known him for 10 years now. My god, I´m growing old!, Darryl whimpered into his pillow and Jim launched his own at him with a grin.

- Would you shut it, you´re only 24 and I´m turning 24 in a month, you ass! That´s calling me old too, you know?!

- I´m sorry, but I really feel old now!

- Yeah, and now you´ve made me feel old, too!

- What is up with you two, would you go to sleep already?! If you´re noisy while I´m trying to fall asleep, I´ll have both your hides!, Dave hissed as he suddenly entered the room and both Jim and Darryl looked to one another with mischief in their eyes. Dave quickly caught on to them;

- Ooh no.. No! Don´t you even think-, Dave pointed a warning finger at them, but too late; Darryl had already launched a pillow to his face and muffled the last bit of his sentence. Dave sent him a glance of disapproval when the pillow slided down his face and hit the floor.

- Alright.. Just remember you started it!, Dave suddenly laughed and snatched the pillow from the floor to launch himself at Darryl. When their little pillow/wrestling fight was over and silence rested over the old inn, Jim had settled in his sheets for the fifth time that night, giggling tiredly with Darryl and Dave.

- You guys, we´d better go to sleep now. Dimitri will have our hides if we´re not rested for the launch tomorrow, Darryl, Dave added under his breath.

- Yeah, you´ve got a point there. Sleep tight, you two, Darryl settled it and pulled his blanket over his shoulder.

- Night.. For the fifth time tonight, Jim smiled before he nuzzled his face into the pillow and closed his eyes.

_Tsk.. ´Why not´, huh? That´s just stupid.. _


End file.
